Supreme Court (SC) judge Justice Qazi Faez Isa, who is currently facing a misconduct reference, has requested Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) Chairman and Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khosa to make his reply in the said reference public, a local news outlet reported on Friday.
Reportedly, the judge has filed two applications at the SJC asking the council to make his reply public and to share the evidence on the basis of which the references against him were drafted.
On July 18, SJC issued another show-cause notice to Justice Isa, this time for “writing letters to President Arif Alvi” after a presidential reference was filed against him.
Justice Isa had so far received two show-cause notices on separate charges.
The SJC, in its last notice, had asked Justice Isa to explain his conduct for writing letters to the president of Pakistan. It was learnt that SC judge had been given 14 days to submit his reply.
A Lahore-based lawyer Waheed Shahzad Butt had filed a complaint against Justice Isa for violating the code of conduct for members of the judiciary by “writing letters to the president of Pakistan and sharing it with the media”.
Interestingly, former Islamabad High Court judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui was also ousted for delivering a speech at the Rawalpindi Bar Association.
In May, President Arif Alvi authorised the filing of references with the SJC against Justice Isa and Sindh High Court’s Justice KK Agha for allegedly not disclosing their foreign properties in their wealth statements.
Consequently, Justice Isa had written a letter to President Alvi seeking clarity regarding the reports that the government had filed a reference against him over allegations of misconduct. Copies of the letter were sent to Prime Minister Imran Khan and the apex court as well.
In the second letter to the president, the SC judge again requested a copy of the reference filed against him. He also expressed his concerns over the alleged media campaign against him.