Justice Isa dissociates himself from enrolment committee

ISLAMABAD:

Supreme Court Justice Qazi Faez Isa has disassociated himself from the enrollment committee, which is scheduled to decide the application of former law minister Dr Farogh Naseem’s regarding the restoration of his practising licence.

Justice, a senior puisne judge, is the chairman of the enrollment committee.

Dr Naseem had filed a petition in Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) wherein he had made the enrollment committee a respondent and alleged that the body was delaying a decision on his application. He had also levelled allegations of bias against Justice Isa.

Informing the PBC members on Monday through his senior private secretary, Farrukh Malik, Justice Isa wrote a letter to convey that with regard to Dr Naseem's application, he has decided to disassociate from the PBC enrollment committee.

"Most unfortunately, completely unsubstantiated, uncalled for, without a shred of evidence, and behind-the-back allegations have been levelled by Mr Farogh Naseem against Justice Isa. Mr Farogh Naseem has also stooped to undermine the integrity of the Senior Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan,” the letter said.

“By referring to the Presidential Reference and consequent litigation initiated by Justice Isa in the Supreme Court Mr Farogh Naseem has demonstrated his unwillingness to accept the result of the same, and that he is a sore loser,” the letter added.

The letter stated that one member of the enrollment committee of the PBC, Syed Qalb-e-Hassan, came to meet Justice Isa on Monday.

He informed Justice Isa that an application was submitted by Dr Naseem seeking the restoration of his licence to practice as an Advocate of the Supreme Court (ASC).

He further said that Dr Naseem had preferred a petition before the PBC wherein the enrollment committee of the bar council had been arrayed as the respondent.

Upon this, Justice Isa asked Gulzar Ahmed, acting secretary of the PBC, who also acts as the secretary of the enrollment committee, to send copies of the application and petition submitted by Dr Naseem.

The letter pointed out that paragraph 2 of Dr Naseem's petition said that the application was placed before Justice Isa on April 8.

"This is untrue. Neither was the application placed before Justice Isa or before the Enrolment Committee on the said date or on any other date.

The application is addressed to the Vice Chairman of PBC and is not copied to the Enrolment Committee, or to its Chairman and Members, comprising the Enrollment Committee," the letter said.

The letter further said that in the ground B of the petition, it was alleged that “It appears that on April 8, the petitioner’s application dated 4.4.2022 was placed before the Chairman of the Respondent ie. Justice Qazi Faez Isa, who acting; unlawfully malafidely and in a manner completely without jurisdiction inordinately deferred the said application”.

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The letter, however, said that the allegation was belied by the fact that the application was first seen by Justice Isa today (Monday).

Ground J of the petition alleged that “M/s Kalb-e-Hasan Shah and Azam Nazeer Tarar, ASCs tried their level best to persuade the learned Chairman of the Respondent to ante-date the matter, however, he was not; prepared to budge an inch.

“This allegation is a given lie to buy the fact that Justice Isa has not held a meeting with the Hon’ble Members of the Enrolment Committee nor has conversed with them with regard to Mr Farogh Naseem’s application.”

Ground K of the petition alleged that “Justice Faez Isa is completely biased against him and that Justice Isa is inordinately delaying the matter, it is contended that Farogh's letter was received in the office of Vice Chairman of the PBC on 7 April 2022 and has not, as yet, been received by Justice Isa or considered by the Enrollment Committee.

"Therefore, alleging bias and that the matter is being delayed is inexplicable. It is also illogical to, on the one hand, allege that the matter is being delayed and in the same breath to state that it was taken up on the very next day that it was received by the Vice Chairman of the PBC."

The letter stated, “Justice Isa with the most able assistance of the members of the enrollment committee laboured hard to attend to a very large number of pending enrollment cases in morning-till-night meetings at Peshawar and Karachi, held over two consecutive days, and morning-till night meetings at Lahore held over three consecutive by days.

The relationship between justice Isa and the law minister had been tense since the filing of the presidential reference against him.

The two also exchanged harsh words during Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) meetings.