Review petitions: SC reserves ruling on bench’s formation in Justice Isa case

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its decision regarding formation of a bench for hearing review petitions in Justice Qazi Faez Isa case.

A six-member larger bench headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial and consisting of Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmad, heard the review petitions filed by Justice Qazi Faez Isa, his wife Sarina Isa and different bar associations of the country.

The petitioners have challenged the June 19 split order of a 10-member bench on the petitions filed against a presidential reference that sought Justice Isa’s removal due to his alleged failure to mention his family members’ foreign properties in his wealth statement.

The bench observed that it would announce the decision at an appropriate time after considering the arguments of the lawyers. During the course of the proceedings, the Advocate-on-Record said Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Latif Afridi could not appear due to illness.

Justice Bandial observed that the court wanted to ask some questions from Latif Afridi, who also could not appear on the previous date of hearing.

Mentioning Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s case, he asked Advocate Munir A Malik, counsel for Justice Isa, to read paragraph 27 of Justice Dorab Patel in the Bhutto review case decision and sought his opinion about the composition of the bench.

Justice Bandial observed that Justice Patel wrote about the bench’s composition in accordance with judicial traditions, and avoided to comment on the objections against the bench’s composition in the review petition.

Munir Malik said the same bench could hear the review petition, which had decided the main case. Justice Akhtar asked if all the judges, who had given the decision, were not available. Malik said while the unavailability of the judges was a separate issue, their number should be same.

Justice Akhtar said the bench was talking about judicial traditions and principles. Malik said there were examples of cases being heard by the main bench. The number of judges should not be changed or reduced in a review case.

Senior lawyers Rashid A Rizvi and Hamid Khan agreed with Munir Malik’s arguments. Justice Akhtar said the bench was not discussing about a particular case as it was talking about the principle. Khan said all available judges who announced the decision should be included in the bench. Rizvi said the same full court should be allowed to give its opinion on Justice Patel’s opinion.

Mrs Isa said she apologised again if her statement on the last hearing had hurt the judges. Justice Bandial said the bench’s composition was the prerogative of the Chief Justice. He advised Mrs Isa to seek the help of an attorney.

Mrs Isa said she was not a party to the main case and asked the bench to provide her the transcript of the case. Justice Bandial said the transcript would be provided on a written request. Sarina Isa said all the judges involved in the original case must be on the bench by law.

The Advocate-on-Record said Latif Afridi had stated that if the court ordered, he would submit written arguments. The bench allowed Latif Afridi to submit written arguments in one week. Later, the case was adjourned till date in office.