Another petition challenges references against two superior court judges – Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: As a seven-judge Supreme Court bank will begin hearing on Tuesday a set of petitions that challenge the presentation of presidential references against two judges of the superior court, the Sindh Bar Council (SBC) also instituted a similar petition on Saturday.

Judge Umar Ata Bandial will head the entire bank of the Supreme Court, which will begin the hearing on September 17. The other members of the bank are Judge Maqbool Baqar, Judge Manzoor Ahmed Malik, Judge Sardar Tariq Masood, Judge Faisal Arab, Judge Ijaz-ul-Ahsan and Judge Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel.

The new petition on behalf of the SBC was filed by former Senate President Raza Rabbani before the headquarters of the Supreme Court in Islamabad, in which President Dr. Arif Alvi, the federation of Pakistan through the secretary of law and The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) through its secretary have been surveyed.

The SJC is already busy with presidential references against Judge Qazi Faez Isa of the Supreme Court and Judge K.K. Aga of the Superior Court of Sindh.

With the submission of the new petition, the number of challenges before the higher court has risen to seven, namely, by Judge Qazi Faez Isa, the Bar Association of the Supreme Court, the Pakistan Bar Council, a Joint petition by the eminent jurist Abid Hassan Minto and rights activist IA Rehman and the president of the Quetta Bar Association, Mohammad Asif Reki.

In its petition, the SBC has argued that the intention of a bad fide patent was floating on the surface in the presentation of the presidential references by the federal government, with the intention of placing shackles on the independence of the judiciary, which strongly violated the concept of tricotomy of power as provided in the constitution.

The petition noted that the SJC had shown an apparent arbitrariness of priorities in the handling of complaints / references against the two judges by the SJC. This has also highlighted the inadequacy in the provision of procedures for SJC in the Rules of Investigation Procedure of the Supreme Judicial Council, 2005.

Shortly after submitting the reference, Judge Isa challenged the presidential reference by instituting a petition before the Supreme Court.

On August 7, Judge Isa moved the petition describing the reference against him as if he were a proxy with bad intent to achieve a collateral purpose.

Drafted and filed by Judge Isa himself in accordance with Article 184 (3) of the constitution, the 71-page petition had requested a statement that the chamber hearing of SJC references had no legal authority and violated fundamental rights .

"This petition is not just a judge, but sends a signal to everyone, that they will also be subjected to the same treatment if they persist in acting independently and decide cases according to the constitution and the law by ignoring the vested interests, "Judge Isa had warned.

The petitioner also requested a restraining order against SJC until the disposition of the present petition, since the references undermine the independence of the judiciary.

Not only did Judge Isa refute the accusations of possession of property in the United Kingdom by his wife and children, the petition also attacked the secretary of the SJC, who turns out to be the Secretary of the Supreme Court, and questioned why the Attorney Mirza Shahzad Akbar, the president of the Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) and Ziaul Mustafa Nasim, legal expert (ARU), carried out the functions of the bureaucracy when they were not civil servants.

"According to the petitioners' knowledge, these two gentlemen are not public officials; neither are they bound by the confidentiality rules applicable to public officials," Judge Isa said, adding that those who are not serving Pakistan cannot be assigned The functions of the executive.

The petition also sought information on the political affiliation of the two gentlemen, especially with the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf or his coalition partners and wondered if both acted independently.

Posted on Dawn, September 15, 2019