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ISLAMABAD: A full-court reference was held in the Supreme Court to farewell the outgoing Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa on Friday, which was joined by lawyers and fellow judges.
Justice Qazi Faez Isa is set to retire today (Friday) as the 29th CJP, after serving for more than a year. Justice Yahya Afridi, who was appointed after being nominated by the Special Parliamentary Committee (SPC), will take oath as CJP on Saturday (tomorrow).
President Asif Ali Zardari will administer the oath to the new Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP).
Six SC judges including senior puisne judge Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Athar Minallah, and Justice Malik Shehzad skipped the full-court reference.
CJP Isa’s wife Sarina Isa and other family members are attending the farewell session.
Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, who would have become the top judge if the 26th Constitutional Amendment had not been in place, refused to attend the reference proceedings over Justice Isa’s overstepping from his constitutional role.
Justice Afridi and Justice Aminuddin Khan attended the proceedings and sat next to Chief Justice Isa. Justices Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, and Shahid Waheed also attended the gathering.
On Thursday night, a farewell dinner was hosted by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) in honor of the outgoing CJP, where nominated Chief Justice Yahya Afridi, Supreme Court judges, and Chief Justices of all high courts marked their presence.
Justice Mansoor’s letter
In a letter written to the Supreme Court’s Registrar, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah said when former Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar overstepped the boundaries of his constitutional role and ventured into matters beyond his jurisdiction, he made the decision not to attend his Reference.
“Today, I find myself compelled to make the same decision, though for different but more worrying reasons,” the senior puisne judge wrote in the letter.
جسٹس منصور شاہ نے رجسٹرار سپریم کورٹ کو ایک اور خط لکھ دیا میں نے اووراسٹیپنگ پر سابق چیف جسٹس ثاقب نثار کا ریفرنس بھی اٹینڈ نہیں کیا تھا میں قاضی فائز عیسٰی کا ریفرنس بھی اٹینڈ نہیں کروں گا قاضی فائز عیسی کا الوداعی ریفرنس اٹینڈ نہ کرنے کی وجوہات پریشان کن ہیں چیف جسٹس کا کردار… pic.twitter.com/DlIqTtjHre
— Basharat Raja (@BasharatRaja786) October 25, 2024
Justice Shah said that Chief Justice Isa instead of safeguarding the rights of all people, the independence of the judiciary, and securing justice for all, remained complacent and indifferent to external influences and pressures on the judiciary.
“Instead of standing as a bulwark against interference, he opened the gates wide, betraying the judiciary’s sacred role as a check and balance on power. He showed neither the courage nor the moral fortitude to defend the judiciary but rather ceded ground to those who sought to weaken the courts for their gain thereby compromising the very foundation of the rule of law,” a senior SC judge wrote.
Expressing his decision not to attend a Reference, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah said that a Reference and celebrating such a tenure would send a message that a Chief Justice can betray his institution, erode its strength, act petty and low, and still be celebrated as an honorable servant of justice.
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