Justice Isa to don robes as the 29th CJP today

As Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Umar Ata Bandial retired on Saturday, the CJP-designate Justice Qazi Faez Isa will take the oath to his office today (Sunday).

Justice Isa, who will don the robes as the 29th chief justice, will be officially appointed during a swearing-in ceremony at 11:00 a.m. in the President House.

The ceremony will be attended by the four services chiefs, the prime minister, four provincial chief ministers, federal and provincial ministers, chief justices of high courts, judges, and lawyers of the Supreme Court.

His term as CJP will span 13 months, ending on October 25, 2024.

Notably, Justice Isa will be the second CJP to hail from Balochistan, after Iftikhar Chaudhry.

The jurist has gained widespread recognition for presiding over important cases, including the Memogate Commission, the Quetta Tragedy Inquiry Commission, and the Faizabad Dharna Decision.

Justice Isa was born on October 26, 1959, in Quetta. His father, Qazi Muhammad Isa, was a prominent member of the movement for the establishment of Pakistan and a close associate of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

He completed his primary education in Quetta and his A and O levels at Karachi Grammar School.

He then pursued law studies in London, where he completed the bar professional examination.

Justice Isa began his legal career as an advocate in the Balochistan High Court in 1985 and later became an advocate of the Supreme Court in 1998. He practised law in the Balochistan High Court and the Supreme Court for over 27 years before being appointed as the Chief Justice of the Balochistan High Court in 2009.

He served as chief justice of the high court from 2009 to 2014 and was elevated to the Supreme Court in 2014.
During the state of emergency declared in the country on November 3, 2007, Justice Isa made a principled decision not to appear before judges whom he believed had violated their oath.

In protest, the then-judges of the Balochistan High Court resigned, and later, Justice Isa assumed the position of judge and later Chief Justice of the high court on August 5, 2009. He took the oath as a Supreme Court justice on September 5, 2014.

Justice Isa has recently been in the spotlight for his protest against the non-implementation of the Supreme Court Practice and Procedure Act, which was created during the Shahbaz Sharif era.

As a form of protest, he has refrained from hearing any cases for the past five months and has chosen to work in his chambers instead.