Top court quashes presidential reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court, in its short order on Friday, quashed the presidential reference against apex court’s judge Qazi Faez Isa.
A 10-member full court, led by Justice Umar Ata Bandial, earlier, Friday reserved its judgment, which was pronounced in the afternoon. Detailed verdict in the case would be announced later. The government may file a review petition now against the court verdict.
During the hearing, Faez Isa submitted documents regarding his money trail and his wife submitted copies of documents of agricultural land and passport. Prior to this, Faez Isa’s counsel Munir A Malik completed his argument. He said his client was alleged of deliberately hiding his assets, while the judiciary committee was of the opinion that there was an ambiguity in the law related to revealing foreign assets.
Munir A Malik said Faez Isa never did associate his wife’s assets to himself. He said under laws of the election commission of Pakistan and the National Accountability Bureau husband was answerable on the assets held by his wife, however the government approached the Supreme Judicial Council instead of going to the Federal Board of Revenue.
He said they never put a hurdle in the FBR’s work. He said the justice challenged the reference for the sake of his and judiciary’s integrity. He said he wanted the court to annul the reference against his client.
The counsel said the Supreme Judicial Council’s job was to only determine the truth and it could not review intention or conduct of the president.
