Khudayar Mohla –
Supreme Judicial Council on Monday turned down one of the references against top court judge Justice Qazi Faez Isa as the complainant Waheed Shahzad Butt failed to produce any material to substantiate his claim that Justice Isa violated code of conduct.
The Council also made it clear that just half dozen references are pending before it saying, “During the pendency of the present information many other informations/complaints which were already in process have since been disposed of and during the interregnum many others have been received which are in process. Presently only about half a dozen other informations/complaints are pending before the Council and while being actively attended to they are passing through different stages of the requisite process”.
During May this year, the President of Pakistan Dr. Alvi filed a reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa over non- disclosure of his three properties of UK while filing income-tax returns and wealth statements. However, Justice Qazi Faez Isa not only challenged the reference but also had written three letters to the President seeking copies of the references.
The complainant Waheed Shahzad Butt had urged the SJC to proceed against Justice Qazi Faez Isa over alleged violation of the code of conduct.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa who is also Chairman of the SJC issued a 10-page order in the matter on Monday saying, “We have also questioned the informant appearing before us in person today in that regard and he has not been able to produce anything before us to establish that the respondent-Judge had revealed or disclosed anything about his relevant letters to anybody”.
While chairing a five-member SJC on Monday the Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa concluded, “The record shows that at the relevant time the respondent-Judge was also under some stress because of the medical condition of his father-in-law and the daughter which stress might have aggravated his sense of harassment and might have contributed towards outrunning of his discretion. In this view of the matter the alleged impropriety in the private letters written by the respondent-Judge to the President has not been found by us to be serious or grave enough to constitute misconduct sufficient for his removal from the exalted office of a Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan”.http://www.supremecourt.gov.pk/web/user_files/File/S.J.C._427_2019.pdf
