Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa on Friday constituted a 10-member Full Court for hearing of petitions against presidential references against Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice KK Agha, ajudge of Sindh High Court. The Chief Justice constituted 10-judge Full Court on Justice Isa's request that a Full Court of "eligible" judges be constituted. Justice Sardar Tariq Masood and Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan on the last hearing recused themselves from the bench subsequent to the objection raised by Munir A Malik, the counsel for Justice Isa.

Malik, a former president Supreme Court Bar Association, on Tuesday night (September 17) suffered a heart attack after that he was immediately rushed to a hospital in the federal capital. According to his associates, he is now stable. The bench, headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial, will take up the petitions of Justice Qazi Faez Isa, Pakistan Bar Council, Supreme Court Bar Association, Bar Councils & Association of Sindh and Balochistan and Abid Hassan Minto and IA Rehman from 24th September.

The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) on August 19 had dismissed a complaint against Justice Qazi for writing letters to President Arif Alvi for supplying the copy of the reference. However, the presidential references against the superior courts judges for not declaring properties abroad and failing to mention them in his wealth statements are still pending before the Council.

Justice Qazi in his petition has also prayed to the Supreme Court to declare that the present chairman and members of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) are no longer competent to hear presidential reference against him on account of the "bias" shown in the Council's order dated August 19.

The PBC in its petition maintained that under Section 116 of Income Tax Ordinance 2011, a tax-payer has only to file a wealth statement of his own assets and not of any other person (whether dependent or not). The only exception to such a situation would be in the case of 'benami' asset. However, the same is not applicable to the current case as at no point Justice Qazi is 'benami' owner of properties, owned by his wife and children.

It stated that the SJC is not competent to declare that an asset, which is otherwise in the name of an individual, is 'benami' without making that individual a party to the proceeding. It further submitted that the SJC's jurisdiction does not extend to individuals who are not judge, which include the adult children and non-dependent wife of Justice Qazi. Therefore, it cannot make them a party to the proceeding pertaining to the presidential reference.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019