ISLAMABAD: Senior puisne decide Justice Mansoor Ali Shah skipped the total courtroom reference, organised to bid farewell to outgoing Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, saying that the latter’s tenure can be outlined by “pettiness and vindictiveness”.
CJP Isa took oath because the twenty ninth chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) on Sept 17, 2023 at a ceremony, the place his spouse Sarina Isa was standing beside him.
Justice Yahya Afridi, who was appointed by a Particular Parliamentary Committee (SPC), is about to take oath as the subsequent chief justice tomorrow (Saturday).
In a letter to Supreme Court docket Registrar, Justice Shah — who would have change into the CJP had the twenty sixth Modification not been handed — famous that it’s common customized to carry a farewell occasion to acknowledge the departing chief justice’s contributions.
Nonetheless, he stated, traditions, like establishments, “depend on the deserves of those that embody them.”
He defined that he determined towards attending former CJP Saqib Nisar’s reference as a result of “he had exceeded the bounds of his constitutional function”.
He reiterated that he would additionally not be attending CJP Isa’s reference “although for various however extra worrying causes”.
Justice Shah identified that the chief justice’s function is to guard the rights of the folks, uphold judicial independence, and guarantee justice for all.
“CJP Isa, like an ostrich, together with his head within the sand, remained complacent and detached to exterior influences and pressures on the judiciary,” he wrote, including: “As a substitute of standing as a bulwark towards interference, he opened the gates huge, betraying the judiciary’s sacred function as a examine and stability on energy.”
The senior decide additional stated that the outgoing CJP confirmed “neither the braveness nor the ethical fortitude to defend the judiciary quite ceded floor to those that sought to weaken the courts for their very own achieve thereby compromising the very basis of the rule of regulation.”
He additionally stated that CJP Isa’s actions have displayed a blatant disregard for the collegiality and respect important to sustaining judicial concord.
“By way of a sample of self-righteousness he constantly failed to interact in dialogue and refused to guide with the consensus-building that’s the hallmark of judicial management.”
Apparently referring to the July 12 reserved seats verdict, the incumbent chief justice has little regard for the judgments of Supreme Court docket and has “contemptuously and unashamedly steered that they will not be carried out by the Govt.”
Earlier on Oct 22, CJP Isa — in an in depth minority judgment — said that the implementation of the highest courtroom’s July 12 verdict was not binding because the assessment petitions within the case had been nonetheless pending and never mounted for listening to.
“He [Justice Isa] has fostered bitter divisions and fractured relationships of colleagues inside the Court docket leaving scars on the judiciary that may final lengthy. His tenure shall be outlined by pettiness, vindictiveness, and a lowly method to administrative issues, having no grace or humility,” Justice Shah added.
He concluded by saying that to attend a reference and rejoice such a tenure would ship a message {that a} chief justice can “betray his establishment, erode its power, act petty and low, and nonetheless be celebrated as an honorable servant of justice.”
When the highest decide retires at present, Justice Afridi will succeed him and take the oath of the workplace of CJP in a ceremony slated to be held on the Aiwan-e-Sadr. President Asif Ali Zardari will administer the oath to the CJP-designate.
Justice Afridi has been appointed the thirtieth chief justice of the nation, who will serve for a hard and fast three-year time period beginning tomorrow (October 26), in response to a press release from the Aiwan-e-Sadr launched on Wednesday.
He’s the primary CJP to be appointed beneath Articles 175A(3), 177, and 179 of the Structure following the twenty sixth Constitutional Modification.
The ruling coalition final week efficiently pushed by the extremely contentious judicial reforms by parliament by way of a two-thirds majority with 225 and 65 votes within the decrease and higher home, respectively.