Profiles of Justice: Yahya Afridi and Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth

PESHAWAR: The Judicial Commission on Saturday recommended the elevation of Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth as the chief justice of the Peshawar High Court (PHC).

The Judicial Commission made the recommendation after the present Chief Justice Yahya Afridi was recommended to be elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

A media protocol officer told The News that the Judicial Commission held its meeting at Lahore where the recommendations were made.

Born in a respectable business family of Dera Ismail Khan on March 16, 1961, Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth received his secondary education in the year 1977 from Cantonment Public School, Peshawar.

He got Higher Secondary School Certificate from the FG Inter College for Boys in 1977 and Bachelor of Science degree from Islamia College, Peshawar in 1981.

He obtained his Bachelor of Arts (additional) from University of Peshawar in 1982. He did his LLB from Khyber Law College, Peshawar in 1985 and M.A. (Political Science) from University of Peshawar in 1986.

Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth started his professional career in December 1985 when he was enrolled as an advocate in the lower courts.

He was enrolled as an advocate of the high court on March 22, 1990. Subsequently on May 24, 2008 he was enrolled as an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

His judicial career started on August 2, 2011, when he was elevated to the PHC as an additional judge. He has also remained a banking judge, company judge and a member of subordinate Judiciary Service Tribunal, Peshawar.

Justice Yahya Afridi had taken oath as chief justice of the PHC on December 30, 2016.

He took various administrative decisions including formation of the District Judiciary Secretariat for improving the condition of district judiciary in the province. He visited almost all the district courts for overseeing and ensuring improvement in the infrastructure and provision of facilities to the litigants.

For the first time in PHC history, he appointed registrar and additional registrar from the bureaucracy in order to separate the judiciary from administrative work, though his move was then challenged in the high court.

Following the recommendation for elevation of Chief Justice Yahya Afridi to the Supreme Court, a notification was issued by the chief justice and judges to again appoint a district and sessions judge Sharif Ahmad as registrar of the PHC.