The Supreme Court on Friday threw out the presidential reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa, terming it ‘invalid’ and also withdrew a show-cause notice issued to the apex court judge last year by the Supreme Judicial Council. While the decision was hailed by a majority of legal wizards terming it a landmark judgement, a few, however, expressed reservations, saying that the matter may be far from over.
Supreme Court Bar Association President Hafiz Abdur Rehman Ansari ‘highly appreciated’ the verdict and commended it for ‘its courageous demonstration guarding its independence [and] thus upholding the prime objective of the rule of law and supremacy of the constitution’.
Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) Vice Chairman Abid Saqi said that the verdict has ‘frustrated the nefarious and ill-motivated move of the government to subdue and pressurise the independent judiciary’. The PBC also announced that all bar members will observe Youm-e-Tashakkur (day of gratefulness) on June 22. They will also celebrate what the council termed a ‘landmark judgement and the victory of the cause of the rule of law, the constitutionalism and independence of the judiciary’.
Zahid F Ebrahim, an advocate of the Supreme Court, said that while the court has ‘slashed the malicious hand attempting assault on its independence’, it has also showed that it is open to financial accountability ‘before the correct tax authority’. Reema Omer, a legal advisor for the International Commission of Jurists, however opined that the case ‘is still not over’. She added that the detailed judgement ‘should clarify why presidential reference didn’t meet this criteria [for genuine and bonafide grievances]’.
Dr Osama Siddique, executive director of the Law and Policy Research Network, questioned the SC’s decision. “Why can SJC come into play again? Surely this is a matter now that pertains only to the wife. Can something else be discovered, uncovered or concocted that the FBR takes back to the SC/SJC so that Justice Isa can be pulled back in again. In which case the sword is still hanging,” he said. Lawyer Taimur Malik said that it doesn’t seem that the matter is over, adding that it will be better if the government and the judiciary go back to focusing on ‘other important work’.
