LAHORE: Disapproving of a Supreme Court’s order banning Justice Qazi Faez Isa from hearing any case involving Prime Minister Imran Khan, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president Maryam Nawaz on Saturday said the ruling will expose the judiciary to disrespect and undermine its credibility.
On Thursday, a five-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed, issued an order banning Justice Isa from hearing cases against the premier, observing that he had already filed a petition against Imran in his personal capacity against the proposed plan to release Rs500 million for development projects in each MP’s constituency.
However, a statement issued on behalf of the prime minister had termed media reports about development funds as incorrect.
Speaking to reporters before her departure from Lahore to Sialkot, to campaign for the NA-75 by-poll, Maryam, when asked, claimed: “The whole system of justice and the respect of the judiciary is being risked to save an unqualified and incompetent person.”
The treatment [of the Supreme Court] provided to Prime Minister Imran Khan was completely different than the treatment meted out to his deposed predecessor Nawaz Sharif, she insisted.
“People can see the faces, the decisions, and the differences between the remarks.”
The February 11 order had recalled how Justice Isa, during the hearing in the case involving uplift funds issue, placed on record photocopies of documents received by him through WhatsApp from some anonymous source, the copies of which were also handed over to other members of the bench as well as Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Jawed Khan.
Though Justice Isa had observed that he was unsure if the documents were genuine, AGP Khan had submitted that since the authenticity of the documents was questionable, the same may not be taken on record but in any event, Justice Isa would become a complainant in the matter and in that capacity it would not be appropriate for the judge to hear the matter.
Chief Justice Ahmed, therefore, observed that in these circumstances it would not be proper for Justice Isa to hear the case.
“I understand that there have been historic attempts to break the PML-N. The state and all institutions have been thrust against a party but the party [PML-N] did not break apart,” Maryam said, adding that the reason behind this was the PML-N becoming an “ideological party”.
To a question, Maryam said Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) chief Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar was “very respectable for me [and] he is a good man.”
“However, when you say such things then they will become a subject of mockery among the nation,” she said.
On Monday, Gen Iftikhar rejected a wave of hearsay claiming the army had established and used any sort of backdoor contacts with the ranks of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) to intervene in political affairs, saying that the army should not be dragged into politics.
A number of recent developments, Maryam said, “were in front of the world [to see] so please speak that which the world will accept”. Otherwise, it would not be good for his credibility and that of the institution he represents, she said.
“The people will think you are lying […] it is better that you adopt silence and don’t talk on the issue but don’t give wrong statements.”
