ustice Qazi Faez Isa has retired and Justice Yahya Afridi has assumed the office of the chief justice of Pakistan after the parliament legislated the 26th Amendment to the constitution, making some far-reaching judicial reforms, including the provision for the formation of a special bench in the Supreme Court of Pakistan to adjudicate the constitutional cases.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, the main opposition party, has indicated that it intends to launch a movement against the amendment. Several legal experts, have warned, meanwhile, that the law suffers from lacunae and that more legislation will be needed to fix it.

Justice Isa is likely to be remembered by those who have followed the evolution of Pakistan’s judicial system as a fairly unbiased judge. Those committed to various agendas or ideologies will, however, continue to call him as a controversial figure.

This scribe has learnt it from usually reliable sources that the government had offered him an extension and reappointment but he rejected all such offers. He had the undesirable distinction of being the first judge in Pakistan who was already in the crosshairs of the ruling party as well as the powerful establishment before he was appointed chief justice. He was the only judge who faced a trial following a presidential reference for his removal to the Supreme Judicial Council. He fought his case with remarkable courage and was firm. He is the only chief justice of Pakistan so far to have supported a........

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