While questioning the recently released five-page verdict of the Supreme Court relating to claims regarding uplift funds for the parliamentarians, a member of the bench Justice Qazi Faez Isa expressed concerns over non-provision of a copy of the judgement to him as per settled practice of the court.
Justice Isa on Saturday wrote a letter to the SC registrar, whose copies were also sent to all judges of the Supreme Court. The SC judge wrote, “I have learnt that an order/judgement (don’t know which one) was passed in the subject case on 11 February 2021, and released to the media. This is shocking since, as yet, I have not received the file with the order/judgement”.
According to a copy of the letter to Registrar Supreme Court available with TLTP, Justice Isa maintained, “It is settled practice that after the Judge heading the Bench (in this case, the Hon’ble Chief Justice) writes the order/judgement, it is sent to the next senior judge, and so on, however; Hon’ble Mr. Justice Ijazul Ahsan apparently received it, but I never did, and the world knows of it before I’ve seen it”.
Raising a total of five questions, Justice Isa asked the registrar to let him know as to why the order was not sent to him. The judge also inquired as to why the settled practice of sending the order to the next senior judge was not followed, adding as to why the verdict was released to the media before giving him the opportunity to read and sign the same in agreement/disagreement. Justice Isa also asked who issued directives to release the order to the media. In his final question, he asked the registrar to provide him the case file so he may finally read the order/judgement.
It is pertinent to mention that the five-page written order, authored by the CJP, said it “would not be proper” for Justice Isa, who is slated to become Chief Justice in 2023, to hear cases against the Prime Minister as the judge has, in personal capacity, filed a petition against PM Imran Khan.
