ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi has once again refused to grant Justice Mansoor Ali Shah a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) to attend an international conference abroad.
Justice Mansoor had been invited by Yale Law School in the United States to participate in its annual Global Constitutionalism 2025 conference, scheduled from September 10 to 13. Reports indicate that Yale has extended this invitation to him for the past five years. The conference gathers senior judges from various jurisdictions along with leading academics from Yale, Harvard, and Princeton.
He was slated to present a paper on the role of artificial intelligence in judicial systems. Yale Law School had directly requested the CJP to nominate him for the event, while Justice Mansoor personally forwarded the same request on August 6.
However, the Supreme Court Registrar informed the organizers that the new judicial year would commence on September 8 with a full-court session. This annual meeting, which reviews the court’s programme and sets priorities, requires the presence of all judges as a standard practice. Consequently, Justice Mansoor’s absence could not be accommodated.
Despite submitting another request on August 15, urging reconsideration and highlighting reasons in favor of granting the NOC, his application was again rejected.
Earlier in February 2025, Justice Mansoor’s request for leave to attend arbitration events in Saudi Arabia had also been denied, forcing him to cancel that trip.
