PHC bar wants restriction on Justice Faez Isa removed

Published February 16, 2021
Justice Qazi Faez Isa. — Photo courtesy Supreme Court website/File
Justice Qazi Faez Isa. — Photo courtesy Supreme Court website/File

PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court Bar Association has expressed concerns over the Supreme Court order, which restrained Justice Qazi Faez Isa from hearing any case against Prime Minister Imran Khan, and demanded that the restriction should be removed.

In a statement issued here on Monday, Peshawar High Court Bar Association president Khalid Anwar Afridi called upon the Chief Justice of Pakistan and rest of the judges of Supreme Court to put an end to exercise of quelling the voice of other judges, who disagreed with them, for sake of maintaining independence of the judiciary.

He said that the concept of judicial recusal required a judge to self-evaluate whether it would be appropriate for him to hear a particular case or not.

“The decision to recuse is ultimately one which the judge in question has to make and it cannot be made on his behalf by colleague judges, when sitting as co-members of the bench or otherwise,” he said, adding that such had been the practice in England from time of Sir William Blackstone and in the United States from the time of Chief Justice John Marshall.

Mr Anwar said that if the decision to recuse had to be made by other members of the bench on behalf of a judge, then this essentially meant that the judge, on whose behalf the decision was being made, was incapable of making that decision.

“By making the judgment call for and on behalf of Justice Qazi Faez Isa to recuse him from cases involving the prime minister, the chief justice and other honoruable judges have essentially accused Justice Qazi Faez Isa of being incapable of upholding his basic oath of office as a judge of the Supreme Court,” he stated.

The PHCBA president maintained that the exclusion of Justice Qazi Faez Isa from certain kind of benches and from hearing cases related to certain kind of entities naturally led to the logical inference that voice was being quelled.

“It seems that Pakistan has pioneered a new law where through judicial edict we exclude dissenting judicial voices from benches and certain class of cases involving the powerful, taking away the prerogative of judges to self-recuse,” he said.

Mr Anwar said that such despotic practice was followed in no other legal system and it was worrying to see that it was taking root in Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2021

Opinion

Editorial

Smog hazard
Updated 05 Nov, 2024

Smog hazard

The catastrophe unfolding in Lahore is a product of authorities’ repeated failure to recognise environmental impact of rapid urbanisation.
Monetary policy
05 Nov, 2024

Monetary policy

IN an aggressive move, the State Bank on Monday reduced its key policy rate by a hefty 250bps to 15pc. This is the...
Cultural power
05 Nov, 2024

Cultural power

AS vital modes of communication, art and culture have the power to overcome social and international barriers....
Disregarding CCI
Updated 04 Nov, 2024

Disregarding CCI

The failure to regularly convene CCI meetings means that the process of democratic decision-making is falling apart.
Defeating TB
04 Nov, 2024

Defeating TB

CONSIDERING the fact that Pakistan has the fifth highest burden of tuberculosis in the world as per the World Health...
Ceasefire charade
Updated 04 Nov, 2024

Ceasefire charade

The US talks of peace, while simultaneously arming and funding their Israeli allies, are doomed to fail, and are little more than a charade.