ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan has declared the presidential reference against Supreme Court Justice Qazi Faez Isa ‘unconstitutional’, saying that the judicial reference filed against the top court Judge was filed in complete disregard of the law.
The apex court issued a detailed verdict in Justice Qazi Faez Isa case today (Friday). The top court found glaring lapses and procedural irregularities in the filing of the reference.
According to the detailed verdict, the top court ruled that there was no ill intent behind the filing of the reference on the part of the president and prime minister.
The Supreme Court, in summary, found eleven grounds on which it found the reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa to be legally ‘defective’, which are:
The President and the PM never gave the needed authorisation to investigate the affairs of Justice Isa; No notice was issued to Mrs. Isa as required under Section 116(1) of the Income Tax Ordinance prior to the filing of the reference;
There was no evidence or a previous offence recorded against Justice Isa to support the allegation of money laundering brought against him; There was no evidence that Justice Isa had violated the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act
The President received wrong advice from the attorney general and the law minister; The President failed to notice the various legal and procedural defects in the Reference;
The President did not form a considered opinion under Article 209(5) of the Constitution; As there was no valid authorisation for an investigation against Justice Isa
Firdous Ashiq Awan, who was then the information minister, had made contemptuous remarks about Justice Isa in public during a press conference. In this regard, the court said, “These illegal acts depict the government’s utter disregard of the law.”
“The actions of the respondents have violated not only the express provisions of the Constitution, the Rules of Business, the Income Tax Ordinance and Anti Money Laundering Act but have also ignored the law, which specifically set out certain safeguards to protect Superior Court Judges from arbitrary actions of the Executive,” the judgement states.
The judgement further stated, “In these circumstances, the errors committed by them in the preparation and framing of the Reference cannot be termed as mere illegalities. Instead, in the context of Article 209, the government’s errors amount to a wanton disregard of the law.”
“As a result, although the preparation and framing of the Reference against the petitioner is not patently motivated with malice, in fact, the scale and degree of the illegalities are such that the reference is deemed to be tainted with mala fide in law. For this reason, the reference is hereby quashed,” it added.
