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Chief Justice of Pakistan
Chief Justice of Pakistan
منصفِ اعظم پاکستان; Munsif-e-Āzam Pākistān; قاضیُ الْقُضاۃ
	Emblem of the SCP
	Incumbent; Yahya Afridi; since 26 October 2024
	Supreme Court of Pakistan
Style	The Honorable; (formal); Your Lordship; (within court); Mr. Chief Justice; (informal)
Status	Chief justice
Seat	Supreme Court Building, Red Zone, Islamabad
Nominator	Prime Minister of Pakistan on recommendations of Special Parliamentary Committee.
Appointer	President of Pakistan
Term length	3 Years or (until the age of 65) whichever is earlier
Constituting instrument	Constitution of Pakistan
Formation	27 June 1949 (75 years ago)
First holder	Abdul Rashid; (as Federal Chief Justice)
Website	www.supremecourt.gov.pk

The chief justice of Pakistan (initials as CJP; Urdu: منصفِ اعظم پاکستان, Munsif-e-Āzam Pākistān) is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and is the highest-ranking officer of the Pakistani judiciary.^[1]

The Federal Court of Pakistan was established by Governor-General Jinnah's Order in February 1948. Until 1956, the chief justice and senior justices were known by the title of 'Federal Judge', and the Federal Court of Pakistan operated out of a wing of the Lahore High Court, despite the federal capital's location in Karachi. The enactment of Pakistan's first constitution in March 1956 redesigned it as the 'Supreme Court of Pakistan.' ^[2]

The chief justice is the chief administrative officer of the country's court system and the highest judicial officer, ranking immediately above the chief justice of the Federal Shariat Court. He is responsible for supervising federal judicial policies, and conducting judicial business in the Supreme Court.^[3]^[4]

Nomination for the appointment of the chief justice is made by the prime minister of Pakistan, and final appointments are confirmed by the president of Pakistan.^[5]^[6] Chief Justice of Pakistan is recommended by Special Parliamentary Committee consisting of 8 members of National Assembly and 4 members of Senate.He is selected by amongst 3 senior most justices of Supreme Court by two third majiority of total membership of Committee. Committee sends nomination of selected justice to Prime Minister and Prime Minister advises President of Pakistan to appoint that justice as Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Before 26th Amendment to the Constitution 2024. Senior most judge of Supreme Court was appointed as Chief Justice by President on advice of Prime Minister.

Presiding over the oral arguments before the court, the chief justice has significant agenda-setting power over meetings of the Supreme Court. In modern tradition^{[clarification needed]}, the chief justice has the ceremonial duty of administering the oath of office of the president of Pakistan.^[7]

The first chief justice was Sir Abdul Rashid.^[8]^[9] The current chief justice is Yahya Afridi, incumbent since 26 October 2024.

List of chief justices

Pakistan's longest-serving chief justice was Mohammad Haleem for total of 3,205 days. The shortest-serving chief justice was Muhammad Shahabuddin. Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is the only justice to have served non-consecutive terms, for a total of three terms with total of 2,480 days.

Number	Name	Period of office		Length of term (years, days)	Bar	Appointed by
1	Sir Mian Abdul Rashid	27 June 1949	29 June 1954	5 years, 0 days	Lahore High Court	Government of India Act 1935
2	Muhammad Munir	29 June 1954	2 May 1960	5 years, 308 days	Lahore High Court	Malik Ghulam Muhammad
3	Muhammad Shahabuddin^†	3 May 1960	12 May 1960	9 days	Madras High Court	Ayub Khan
4	A.R. Cornelius	13 May 1960	29 February 1968	7 years, 292 days	Lahore High Court
5	S.A. Rahman	1 March 1968	3 June 1968	94 days	Lahore High Court
6	Fazal Akbar	4 June 1968	17 November 1968	166 days	East Pakistan High Court
7	Hamoodur Rahman^†	18 November 1968	31 October 1975	6 years, 347 days	Calcutta High Court
8	Yaqub Ali	1 November 1975	22 September 1977	1 year, 325 days	Lahore High Court	Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry
9	Sheikh Anwarul Haq	23 September 1977	25 March 1981	3 years, 183 days	Lahore High Court	Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry
10	Mohammad Haleem	23 March 1981	31 December 1989	8 years, 283 days	Sindh High Court	Zia-ul-Haq
11	Afzal Zullah	1 January 1990	18 April 1993	3 years, 107 days	Lahore High Court	Ghulam Ishaq Khan
12	Nasim Hasan Shah	17 April 1993	14 April 1994	362 days	Lahore High Court	Ghulam Ishaq Khan
13	Syed Sajjad Ali Shah	5 June 1994	2 December 1997	3 years, 180 days	Sindh High Court	Farooq Leghari
14	Ajmal Mian	27 December 1997	30 June 1999	1 year, 185 days	Sindh High Court	Wasim Sajjad
15	Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui	1 July 1999	26 January 2000	209 days	Sindh High Court	Rafiq Tarar
16	Irshad Hasan Khan	26 January 2000	6 January 2002	1 year, 345 days	Lahore High Court	Rafiq Tarar
17	Bashir Jehangiri	7 January 2002	31 January 2002	24 days	Peshawar High Court	Pervez Musharraf
18	Sheikh Riaz Ahmad	1 February 2002	31 December 2003	1 year, 333 days	Lahore High Court
19	Nazim Hussain Siddiqui	31 December 2003	29 June 2005	1 year, 180 days	Sindh High Court
20	Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry (1st)	29 June 2005	9 March 2007	1 year, 253 days	Balochistan High Court
A	Javaid Iqbal	9 March 2007	24 March 2007	15 days	Balochistan High Court
A	Rana Bhagwandas	25 March 2007	20 July 2007	87 days	Sindh High Court
20	Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry (2nd)	20 July 2007	3 November 2007	136 days	Balochistan High Court
±	A. H. Dogar	3 November 2007	21 March 2009	1 year, 138 days	Sindh High Court
20	Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry (3rd)	21 March 2009	11 December 2013	4 years, 265 days	Balochistan High Court	Asif Ali Zardari
21	Tassaduq Hussain Jillani	12 December 2013	6 July 2014	176 days	Lahore High Court	Mamnoon Hussain
22	Nasir-ul-Mulk	7 July 2014	16 August 2015	1 year, 70 days	Peshawar High Court
23	Jawwad S. Khawaja	17 August 2015	9 September 2015	23 days	Lahore High Court
24	Anwar Zaheer Jamali	10 September 2015	30 December 2016	1 year, 111 days	Sindh High Court
25	Mian Saqib Nisar	31 December 2016	17 January 2019	2 years, 17 days	Lahore High Court
26	Asif Saeed Khan Khosa	18 January 2019	20 December 2019	336 days	Lahore High Court	Arif Alvi^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14]
27	Gulzar Ahmed	21 December 2019	1 February 2022	2 years, 42 days	Sindh High Court
28	Umar Ata Bandial	2 February 2022	16 September 2023	1 year, 226 days	Lahore High Court
29	Qazi Faez Isa	17 September 2023	25 October 2024	1 year, 38 days	Balochistan High Court
30	Yahya Afridi	26 October 2024	Incumbent	3 years, 0 days	Peshawar High Court	Asif Ali Zardari

A Acting
± Recess appointment, later rejected by the Supreme Judicial Council. All decisions voided due to illegality of appointment.
† Died in office

Timeline

References

^ Pakistan Business Law Handbook Strategic Information and Laws. Intl Business Pubns USA. 2012. ISBN 978-1438770710. Retrieved 19 April 2015.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
^ Shah, Ralph Braibanti (1999). Chief Justice Cornelius of Pakistan : an analysis with letters and speeches. Foreword by Nasim Hasan (2. impr. ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195790184.
^ Article 176 in The Judicature Chapter 2 of Part VII of the Constitution of Pakistan
^ Article 175A in Chapter 1: The Courts. Part VII: The Judicature of the Constitution of Pakistan
^ Article 175A(12)-175A(13) Chapter 1: The Courts. Part VII: The Judicature of the Constitution of Pakistan
^ "Judges Appointment & Court Composition". Islamabad, Pakistan: Supreme Court of Pakistan Press. Archived from the original (google cache (html)) on 24 March 2015. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
^ Article 178 in the Chapter 2: The Supreme Court of Pakistan of Part VII: The Judicature of Constitution of Pakistan
^ Masood, Ahsan. "Names of the Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of Pakistan". Masood and Masood Press. Archived from the original on 17 December 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
^ "The Judicial System of Pakistan" (PDF). Supreme Court of Pakistan. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 February 2017. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
^ "Justice Asif Saeed Khosa appointed new Chief Justice of Pakistan". The News. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
^ Reporter, The Newspaper's Staff (3 January 2019). "Alvi approves Justice Khosa's appointment as next CJP". Dawn. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
^ Tribune.com.pk (4 December 2019). "Justice Gulzar to be sworn in as 27th chief justice of Pakistan on Dec 21". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
^ "President approves appointment of Justice Umar Ata Bandial as CJP". ARY NEWS. 13 January 2022. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
^ Guramani, Nadir (21 June 2023). "President approves Justice Qazi Faez Isa's appointment as next chief justice". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 15 September 2023.