The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) on Monday dismissed a reference filed by the federal government against Justice Qazi Faez Isa for writing letters to President Arif Alvi for getting a copy of the reference.
"... the private letters written by the respondent judge (Justice Isa) to the President have 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," said the SJC order.
Waheed Shahzad Butt, an advocate of Lahore High Court, on 12-06-19 sent a letter to the SJC against Justice Qazi Faez for writing letters to President. He alleged that Justice Qazi had leaked the letters to media, which generated an unnecessary public controversy and the Prime Minister was targeted and unduly dragged into the controversy while unsubstantiated allegations were levelled against the President and other holders of offices in the federal cabinet and government regarding leaking the contents of the reference to media.
Justice Qazi in his interim reply denied leaking letters to media. However, he maintained that the secretary of the Council entertains prejudice and bias against him; and that the informant's (Waheed) credentials and motivations are doubtful and mala fide. In the reply, he referred his meeting with the Chief Justice regarding the Presidential Reference.
According to the SJC order, Justice Qazi had written three letters to the President on 28.05.2019, 03.06.2019 and 12.06.2019. In all of those letters he had maintained that he had come to know through media that the President had filed a reference against him before this Council.
The SJC order, authored by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa who is also the chairman of the SJC, gave further details about the meeting between CJP and Justice Qazi.
"The Chief Justice informed the respondent judge about receipt of the reference from the President and asked him to read the same for his information. The respondent judge then sat down and read the entire reference and took his time in doing so. During such reading he asked for a paper and pencil for taking notes which were supplied to him by the Chief Justice personally. After reading the reference and taking notes, the respondent judge said that he wanted to write to the President asking for a copy of the reference to which the Chief Justice responded by saying that under the Constitution the President could require the Council to inquire into the conduct of a judge but he was not obliged to provide a copy of the reference to the concerned judge," said the order.
The order said that the meeting between Justice Khosa and Justice Qazi shows that the respondent judge not only knew about filing of the reference against him by the President but also about the actual contents thereof and the allegations levelled therein before he had started writing successive letters to the President on the subject professing his ignorance about the same.
It said dragging the Prime Minister and his different spouses and children into the matter through such letters was distasteful. The order maintained that no unusual haste was shown by the SJC secretary in processing the present information because at least from January 2019 all information/complaints received under Article 209 of the Constitution and all other matters requiring attention of the Chief Justice of Pakistan in all his capacities are processed by the registrar and his staff immediately without any loss of time and the record can vouch for that.
The show cause to Justice Qazi was issued with the approval of the Council by its secretary (registrar SC). Thus the allegation that the secretary of the Council entertains prejudice and bias against the respondent judge is a bald allegation which has not been substantiated through any material whatsoever.
The order said that the basis of levelling allegations against a number of persons regarding leaking information about the reference was nothing but presumptive. About the informant's credentials or motivations, the order said it is the correctness and seriousness of the allegations of misconduct of a judge upon which this Council is ordinarily focused and not on the credentials or antecedents of the informant.
It said all the information/ complaints filed under Article 209 of the Constitution are taken up for consideration by the Council immediately and at one given time many information/ complaints so received are passing through different stages of the process contemplated by the Supreme Judicial Council Procedure of Enquiry 2005. Presently only about half a dozen other information/complaints are pending before the Council and while being actively attended to they are passing through different stages of the requisite process.
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