The presence of Justice Qazi Faez Isa, who is slated to become the next Chief Justice of Pakistan in September after the retirement of the incumbent Chief Justice of Pakistan, at the National Assembly hall to mark the golden jubilee of the Constitution of Pakistan on Monday has caused a considerable stir for some obvious reasons.

That he happened to be the only top court judge in attendance at the event although all the honorable SC judges were invited to the event is something that seems to have placed him in an awkward position. His brother judges, in my view, had preferred not to attend the event for all the right reasons. His presence at the event raised many an eye brow mainly because of the fact that the ongoing political and institutional wrangling has already gone into overdrive.

Moreover, a dangerous split within the apex court in relation to elections to Punjab and KPK assemblies has got a bad press. However, Justice Isa had acted wisely and prudently by distancing himself from the political views stated by legislators who spoke prior to him in the National Assembly, making it clear to all and sundry that he was not there to make a political speech but only to celebrate the golden jubilee of the Constitution by expressing his views on law and constitutionalism.

Justice Isa seemed to have lost sight of the fact that law, like economics, cannot be separated from politics.

The honorable justice must be fully aware of the fact that there are some basic characteristic of the relationship between law and politics. The law functions in relation to politics in three aspects, namely as a goal, a means, or an obstacle.

Nadir Sanjrani (Karachi)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023