SJC summons AGP on July 12 over references

Law officer likely to respond to superior court judges’ replies to presidential references

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) has summoned the attorney general for Pakistan (AGP) on July 12 in connection with the presidential references filed last month against the Supreme Court judge Qazi Faez Isa and the Sindh High Court (SHC) judge KK Agha.

Sources confirmed to The Express Tribune that the SJC has issued a notice to the AGP for July 12 when the SJC will conduct its third hearing of the references that accused the senior judges of not disclosing their spouses’ assets or value of the assets in wealth statements.

It is learned that Justice Isa has already submitted a more than 40-page reply in the SJC. The SHC judge KK Agha has also submitted a reply giving complete details as to how he acquired foreign properties.

He has also justified why value of properties could not be disclosed in his wealth statement. Earlier, the government had alleged that although the SHC judge had declared his foreign properties in 2018, he did not disclose their value.

The AGP is expected to submit his response to judges’ replies. Senior government functionaries are very confident that they will be able to prove their case against Justice Isa in light of his reply.

The government is interested to know sources of fund and money trail for the properties owned by Justice Isa’s spouse. Lawyers supporting Justice Isa declare the reference as based on ill intention.

They claim that the judge has nothing to do with his family business and properties and committed no offence under tax laws. Some senior lawyers believe that Justice Isa should get services of a counsel.

It is not yet clear whether notices for July 12 have also been issued to both judges.  Justice Isa, however, urged the council to make his reply public like other public documents on the Supreme Court’s website.

On the second hearing of the references, which lasted 10 minutes, neither the AGP nor the accused judges appeared before the SJC. The five-judge SJC bench comprises Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, the SHC Chief Justice Ahmed Ali Shaikh and the Peshawar High Court (PHC) Chief Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth.

The three SC judges who are part of the SJC were also part of the larger bench which on July 28, 2017 disqualified former premier Nawaz Sharif in the Panamagate case. These judges then had also sought money trail from Sharif family for acquiring of London flats.

The superior bars have already expressed doubts over the SJC working after the Judicial Commission of Pakistan last week approved five names proposed by the PHC judge to be appointed as the high court’s additional judges.

There is a strong support of Justice Isa in all three smaller provinces. If Justice Isa is removed then there will be no chance of any Balochistan judge to become chief justice of Pakistan in near future.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Bar Council has also disputed minutes of the JCP meeting approving five nominees of the PHC chief justice. Shahjahan Khan Swati, a member of the bar, has written a letter to the CJP Asif Saeed Khosa, expressing the JCP’s July 1 meeting.

“It astonished to me that in the minutes it mentioned that JCP members unanimously recommended all the candidates. Such imprecise illustration in minutes can raise serious questions on the credibility and reliability of the commission,” he said.

Swati also requested CJP Khosa, who is JCP chairman to take notice of this importance matter.