ISLAMABAD: A top judge of Supreme Court, Justice Qazi Faez Isa, on Wednesday moved the apex court against a misconduct reference filed against him in the Supreme Judicial Council by the government on the directives of President Arif Alvi.
On May 29, the government had filed a reference against Justice Isa in the SJC for owning properties abroad under his wife and children names and not mentioning them in his wealth statement.
A five-member larger SJC bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khosa and comprising Apex Court’s Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, Sindh High Court’s Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Shaikh and Peshawar High Court’s Chief Justice Waqar Ahmed is hearing the case.
The 354-page petition says that the reference was filed on the basis of mala fide intentions. A total of 13 respondents, including the Pakistan Bar Council and Supreme Court Bar Association, have been named in the petition. In a petition, Justice Isa also asked the court to halt the proceedings in the SJC till a verdict is given on his petition.
According to reports, Advocate Munir A. Malik, former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and one of the members of the league that had spearheaded the epic 2007 lawyers’ movement, drafted the petition under Article 184(3) of the Constitution in a similar fashion as was done by former chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry when a reference on misconduct had been filed in the SJC to remove him in 2007.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and the SCBA may also challenge the references in the apex court this week.
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