President Mamnoon Hussain announced Wednesday the appointment of Justice Saqib Nisar as chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) starting Dec 31.

Current CJP Anwar Zaheer Jamali is set to retire by the end of the year. Justice Jamali served the at the post for 15 months since his appointment in September 2015.

Justice Mian Saqib Nisar was born on January 18, 1954 in Lahore and obtained an undergraduate degree in law from University of Punjab.

He practices in civil, commercial, tax and constitutional law and currently serves as a Judge in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

In 1982, Justice Nisar became an advocate of the High Court and advocate of the Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan in 1994. He was then elevated as the Judge of the High Court on in 1998 and of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2010.

Nisar has also worked as a part-time lecturer at Punjab Law College and Pakistan College of Law, where he taught Civil Procedure Code and the Constitution.