The legal fraternity stands divided on the boycott of courts in protest against a misconduct reference being taken up by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) on Friday (today) against Supreme Court’s Justice Qazi Faez Isa.
The call for strike, which comes amidst the filing of another application for a new reference against Justice Isa, was jointly given by the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA). However, some groups of the Punjab Bar Council and the Lahore Bar Association have announced to boycott the strike call given by the apex lawyer bodies.
The application for a new reference against Justice Isa has been submitted by Lahore-based lawyer Waheed Shahzad Butt, which states that the apex court judge violated the code of conduct for members of the judiciary by ‘writing letter to the president of Pakistan and sharing it with the media’. “While writing letter to the president of Pakistan and sharing it with the media, Justice Isa appears to have committed gross misconduct and is liable to be removed upon the recommendation of the SJC in terms of Article-209 of the constitution of Pakistan,” the application read.
“Choosing a public forum for voicing his personal and subjective views and opinions, Justice Isa denounced the judiciary of this country as a whole, he targeted the chief executive (prime minister) of the country and used offensive language to criticise the matter,” read the application, which was also sent to President Arif Alvi and the Supreme Court registrar. “By levelling all such allegations publically without substantiating the same, Justice Isa has violated various articles of the Code of Conduct issued by the Honourable Supreme Judicial Council under the mandate of Article-209(8) of the constitution,” it added.
Meanwhile, addressing a press conference in the federal capital, SCBA President Amanullah Kanrani said the reference filed against Justice Isa cannot be called an official one in legal terms at present. “The matter, right now, is between the SJC and the Attorney General,” he said. “The matter is in its initial stages,” he said, and added that till the SJC did not deem it fit enough to make a case for action, the reference is ‘just a piece of paper’. He also said that lawyers across Pakistan will boycott the courts on Friday (today).
However, the Lahore Bar Association (LBA) has distanced itself from the strike call. In a meeting of the bar’s general house, the LBA office-bearers said that the bar will not become part of any strike over the issue. They also demanded that the reference should be decided on a priority basis. The meeting also passed a resolution in support of the SJC proceedings.
Separately, a general house meeting of the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA), convened to discuss five resolutions over the strike issue, ended indecisively due to verbal clashes between the lawyer groups. The meeting was convened to discuss five resolutions, wherein three supported the SJC proceedings and two opposed it with a demand to observe a strike on June 14.
Earlier in the day, it was reported that former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry had written a letter to the SJC over the government’s reference against Justice Isa. In his letter, the former CJP stressed that sending a reference to the SJC without following procedures was in violation of the constitution and the law. The letter further read that it was not stated anywhere in the reference that Justice Isa had violated the Code of Conduct. It added that due to the reference, the judge and institution of the judiciary as a whole had been scandalised.
According to Chaudhry, the reference – being against constitutional provisions, untrue, without substances, and motivated – may not be entertained and be rejected without further proceedings. Chaudhry said the SJC should take action against the president and prime minister for violating their oath.
On June 12, the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) had constituted a joint action committee of lawyers’ representatives to decide a future course of action with regard to the presidential reference against Justice Isa and Justice Agha. “The move of filing the references by the government against both these judges smacks [of] mala fide of the government. The manner and haste shown in filing the references and their timing also raise eyebrows in the legal fraternity. Therefore, we disapprove this move,” a resolution passed at the PBC meeting had read.
