SC issues detailed verdict in Justice Faez Isa case

The verdict is being issued after nine months of short order.

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - The Supreme Court on Saturday issued a detailed verdict in a case pertaining to review petitions filed by Justice Qazi Faez Isa in the apex court against the verdict on presidential reference against him.

The judgement was authored by Justice Maqbool Baqir, Justice Mazhar Alam, Justice Aminuddin and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and an additional note was penned by Justice Yahya Afridi.

“This judgment must announce loud and clear that no one, including a Judge of the highest court in the land, is above the law. At the same time, no one, including a Judge of the highest court in the land, can be denied his right to be dealt with in accordance with law,” the judges remarked at the start of the verdict.

According to the judgement, the impugned directions “are found to have been made by this Court without adhering to the principle of natural justice, fair trial and due process...”.

Though the directives made by the Supreme Court were in good faith, the court “on its own, without putting to the parties on notice, without informing them what the Court was contemplating to do and without inviting and hearing their arguments on the matters dealt with therein, the above-noted legal and constitutional aspects of the impugned directions with their ramifications were not present in the mind of the Court while making the impugned directions”.