President vehemently rejects leakage of judge’s reference contents

Expresses confidence in the SJC to decide matter as per law

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi Wednesday strongly rebuffed that the contents of a reference against a judge of the Supreme Court were leaked from the Aiwan-e-Sadr, saying that he had conducted a thorough investigation into the issue.

In an interview with a private TV channel, he said that he had received the reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa, the judge of the Supreme Court, moved by the ministry of law and justice.

To a question in that regard, the president further elaborated that after receiving the reference, he had three options over its disposal. “First to sit over it like those who used such things for blackmailing (threats), second for holding a media trial, and the third one to proceed in accordance with relevant laws,” he said.

The president said that he preferred the legal one by sending the presidential reference to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) under the specific laws and expressed the confidence that SJC would decide it in accordance with the law.

To another question, the president credited Prime Minister Imran Khan for effectively representing Pakistan’s stance on various issues including a peaceful resolution to the Afghan issue during his visit to the United States.

Pakistan had assured the US about making all out efforts for dialogue with the Taliban for the peaceful solution of the issue, he said, adding that the US wanted a peaceful exit from Afghanistan, and afterward Pakistan could assist in the rehabilitation and restructuring efforts.

Responding to another question, he said the prime minister had already reminded the world and the US particularly that war was no solution to the issues as it was easy to flare up the conflicts without any end in sight. President Trump thought out-of-the-box which was his quality, he added.

Parting ways with the transactional ties, the prime minister rightly projected that Pakistan wanted to live among the comity of nations with dignity and self-respect, which also correlated with PTI’s motive of transforming the country into a modern, Islamic and welfare state.