The Supreme Court de-listed the hearing of Justice Qazi Faez petition, which was fixed for March 30, due to coronavirus pandemic. The fixture branch of the apex court on Thursday issued the notification in this regard.
Attorney General for Pakistan Khalid Jawed Khan in the last hearing had refused to represent the federal government in Justice Qazi Faez Isa's petition against presidential reference due to conflict of interest.
When the federation in May last year had filed the reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice K K Agha, he had expressed concern over it. Khalid Jawed had sought time for engaging new counsel and his preparation. However, so far the government has not engaged any lawyer to plead the federation's case.
The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) vice-chairman has filed contempt petition against ex-AGP Anwar Mansoor Khan and Law Minister Farogh Naseem would also be heard with the matter before the larger bench. Vice-chief PBC Abid Saqi has filed the petition for the independence of the judiciary.
He says that spying of judges has been accepted time and time again and in this case covert surveillance was done, which was illegal and unethical. The spying of citizens is destroying their lives. The bar [PBC] has been struggling to protect the fundamental rights of the citizens for the last 34 years.
He said that when a prime minister could be sent packing because of contempt of court then no one should be spared. A 10-member larger bench, headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial has been hearing identical petitions challenging presidential reference against Justice Qazi Faez for allegedly not disclosing his foreign properties in wealth statements since October last year.
Besides the apex court judge, the PBC, Supreme Court Bar Association, Bar Councils and Association of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan and Abid Hassan Minto, and IA Rehman have also challenged the presidential reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa.