ISLAMABAD: On the first working day after releasing detailed reasons in the filing of the presidential reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa, the Supreme Court decided that a seven-judge bench would commence from Wednesday the hearing of a set of review petitions against the June 19 short order.

According to a cause list issued by the court office, the larger bench will comprise Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Manzoor Ahmed Malik, Justice Faisal Arab, Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, Justice Muneeb Akhtar and Justice Qazi Mohammad Amin.

All the seven judges were same who while deciding the set of constitutional petitions against the filing of the presidential reference against Justice Isa had earlier delivered the majority judgement.

The review petitions seeking to revisit paragraphs 3 to 11 were sought by Justice Isa himself, his wife Sarina Isa, the Sindh High Court Bar Association, the Supreme Court Bar Association, Quetta Bar Association President Mohammad Asif Reki, Punjab Bar Council Vice Chairman Shahnawaz Ismail, senior advocate Abid Hassan Minto and the Pakistan Bar Council.

Larger bench comprises the same seven judges who gave majority judgement in case

In their review petitions, the petitioners argued that the directions/observations or contents of paragraphs 3 to 11 in the June 19 short order were unnecessary, superfluous, contradictory, excessive and unlawful and thus liable to be deleted since it constituted ‘mistake’ and ‘error’ on the face of the record and were thus liable to be reviewed and deleted.

The seven judges through paragraphs 3 to 11 in the short order had quashed the reference but ordered the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman to furnish a report containing details of the proceedings conducted by the Inland Revenue commissioner after seeking explanation from the wife and children of Justice Isa about three properties in the UK to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) secretary.

On the receipt of the report, the SJC may determine to initiate any action/proceedings for the purposes of Article 209 of the Constitution, in its suo motu jurisdiction, the judgement added.

According to the paragraphs 13 to 14 of the order, Justice Maqbool Baqar, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Yahya Afridi had quashed the presidential reference against Justice Isa as a result of which the proceedings along with the show cause notice issued by the SJC against Justice Isa also stood abated.

In her petition, Ms Isa had also sought a stay since, what she stated, the FBR Commissioner were proceeding with indecent haste against her.

She argued that the terms “offshore evader” and “offshore assets” were introduced for the first time by the Finance Act, 2019, published on June 30, 2019.

The petitioner pleaded that she had declared the three offshore properties in her tax returns for the tax year 2018 and 2019, after the change of law requiring them to be so declared and has till date not received a single notice in respect of either tax year or in respect of her returns.

The SC by issuing June 19 order under Article 184(3) effectively created a class of persons and redefined the private and confidential affairs of individual citizens falling within such class as matters of ‘public importance’, the petition feared.

Meanwhile, the detailed majority judgement that was authored by Justice Bandial had held that the President Arif Alvi did not form a considered opinion under Article 209(5) of the constitution and therefore the presidential reference against Justice Isa suffered with multiple defects. According to the detailed ruling, the respondents illegally accessed the tax records of Justice Isa.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2020