President of Pakistan Dr Arif Alvi Thursday appointed Justice Umar Ata Bandial of Supreme Court as next Chief Justice of Pakistan, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

President Alvi made the appointment under Article 175A.

Justice Umar Ata Bandial will take oath as the next chief justice of Pakistan next month as incumbent CJP Justice Gulzar Ahmed will hang his robe on February 1, 2022.

As many as seven senior judges of the judiciary including Justice Gulzar Ahmed will retire this year. These will include five apex court judges and two justices of the Lahore High Court (LHC).

Justice Umar Ata Bandial is the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and will take the oath of the CJP office on February 2.

The Supreme Court judges retire after reaching the age of 65 years while the high court judges leave the office at 62 years.

After Justice Gulzar’s retirement on February 1, the next will be Supreme Court’s Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmad who will retire on March 5, Justice Maqbool Baqir on April 4, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Mandokhel on July 13 and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah on August 13. Lahore High Court’s Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem will hand his robe on June 30, 2022, and Justice Chaudhry Masood Jahangir will retire on December 2.

There was one seat of judge vacant at the Supreme Court while 12 seats were vacant at the Lahore High Court at the moment.