The Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) has demanded the removal of Supreme Court’s Justice Qazi Faez Isa for ‘criticising’ the armed forces as well as premier spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence in a verdict in Faizabad sit-in case.
“Justice Qazi Faez Isa rendered a judgment in the Faizabad dharna case in February 2019, in which the towering principles of law stand completely mutilated. The Federation of Pakistan is justified in filing an application for review against the judgment, in which without any evidence, factual basis or determination, Justice Qazi Faez Isa has ridiculed the armed forces and has carted serious aspersions on the intelligence agencies implying them to be rogue agencies thus strengthening the narrative of RAW, India, and our enemies,” a resolution passed by the executive committee of the Punjab Bar Council read.
“Pakistan Army and intelligence agencies are fighting war of country’s survival on multiple fronts. Instead of appreciating the armed forces and the intelligence agencies, Justice Qazi Faez Isa has ridiculed them,” it continued. “Therefore, we demand that appropriate proceedings against Justice Qazi Faez Isa may be initiated under Article 209(5) of the constitution for his removal as a judge of the Supreme Court,” it demanded.
The council maintained that all the organs of the state must exercise powers within the four corners and ambit prescribed by the law and the constitution.
“Indeed, the armed forces need to act within the four comers of the constitution, but such restriction is also equally applicable to the members of the judiciary, who in their speeches and judgments are ought not to ridicule the constitutional institutions such as the armed forces, without any lawful justification and on surmise, conjecture and perceptions,” the resolution maintained.
Citing another case, the council said former Islamabad High Court judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui had transgressed the limits prescribed under the law, constitution and code of conduct meant for the superior judiciary when he in a speech targeted other members of the judiciary and personnel from the armed forces without substantiating the same with any concrete evidence. “The removal of Justice Shaukat Siddiqui by the Supreme Judicial Council is absolutely in order and despite the same not being open to any exception, the Karachi Bar Association has filed a petition assailing the opinion/decision of the Supreme Judicial Council, which the Punjab lawyers do not support, rather they reject the same,” the resolution asserted.
“All along, the bar councils, bar associations and lawyers have adversely criticised the dysfunctionality of the Supreme Judicial Council. Now, when the Supreme Judicial Council has taken an unexceptionable step to remove Justice Shaukat Siddiqui, the challenge against his removal before the apex court by the Karachi Bar Association and a few other lawyers is a total mystery,” the resolution read. “Rather, such a challenge is hardly conducive to the process of judicial accountability and is vital to instill the paradigms of transparency, justice and fair play in the administration of justice,” it concluded.
The resolution was signed by Executive Committee Chairman Iftikhar Ibrahim Qureshi and members Akram Khaksar, Ali Raza Kirmani, Munir Hussain Bhatti, Jamil Asghar Bhatti and Rafique Siyan.