ISLAMABAD: Justice Qazi Faez Isa has taken oath as 29th Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP).
President Dr. Arif Alvi administered the oath. High-ranking government and military officials, caretaker Prime Minister, federal ministers, senators, foreign ambassadors, and other dignitaries witnessed the oath taking ceremony.
The ceremony began with the recitation of the Holy Quran, following which the notification for Justice Isa’s appointment was read out. The president then administered the oath to Justice Isa, whose wife Sarina Isa stood by his side.
Born in Quetta on October 26, 1959, Justice Qazi Faez Isa is the son of the late Qazi Mohammad Isa of Pishin, who was in the forefront of the Pakistan Movement and a close associate of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Justice Isa’s father was the first person from the province to acquire the Bar-at-Law degree and helped establish the All India Muslim League in Balochistan
after his return from London. His father had served as the only member on the Central Working Committee of the All India Muslim League from Balochistan.
Begum Saida Isa, Justice Isa’s mother, was a social worker and worked in an honorary capacity on the boards of hospitals and other charitable organisations which focused on education, children and women’s health issues.
After completing his primary and secondary education in Quetta, Isa moved to Karachi to finish his ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels from the Karachi Grammar School (KGS). He then went on to study law from London, where he completed his Bar Professional Examination from the Inns of Court School Law, London.
Justice Isa enrolled as an Advocate of the Balochistan High Court on January 30, 1985, and as an Advocate Supreme Court in March 1998. He has practised law for over 27 years before the High Courts of Pakistan, the Federal Shariat Court and the Supreme Court of Pakistan. He became a member of the Balochistan High Court Bar Association, Sindh High Court Bar Association and Life Member of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan.
From time to time, he was called upon by the High Courts and the Supreme Court as amicus curiae and rendered assistance in certain complicated cases. He has also conducted international arbitration. Justice Isa took oath as a judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on September 5, 2014.
The biggest challenge Justice Isa may encounter during his tenure as the CJP would be unifying the court and restoring the court’s credibility, so that no one could point a finger at the court’s judgements.
The perceived practice of the formation of a particular bench consisting of ‘like-minded judges’ to hear constitutional matters of public importance has become the basis of criticism of the top judiciary. There has been a general feeling that senior judges were being left out in the formation of benches for desired outcomes of the proceedings.
