The government does not seem to be willing to accept the Supreme Court judgment in Mr Justice Faez Isa’s case, because it went through the highly unusual step of filing a review petition of a judgment which itself was delivered on a review petition. The petition was rejected by the Registrar’s Office, but the government is said to be adamant about filing the petition, vowing to do so after removing the objections raised. Clearly, the Law Ministry is not willing to let the judgment attain finality, and will try every trick in the book and a few that are out of it, to get Mr Justice Isa off the Bench. It is suspected that all of this activity, which led to Mr Justice Isa having to argue the petition himself, and have his wife appear before the Supreme Court, is because of the prospect of him becoming the Chief Justice of Pakistan in September 2023, of which he has legitimate expectancy. He will remain Chief Justice until he retires in October 2024.
This is a crucial period, because while it will not cover the elections, it will cover the period after, when governments are being formed. At the same time, this is the year of the retirement of the COAS, and if there is any litigation on the issue, as there was in 2020, as CJP he may have to deal with some matters. The present insistence seems to be fuelled by Law Minister Farogh Nasim and PM’s Accountability Adviser Shahzad Akbar’s desire to avoid Mr Justice Isa as CJP. Mr Justice Isa seems to be still paying for his judgment in the Faizabad dharna case, in which he had criticized those institutions that interfered in politics.
This refusal to accept the Supreme Court judgment seems to reflect a refusal to accept the rule of law. Just as much as no one accepts losing an election, losing a case is unacceptable. If the government’s legal advisers take this attitude, that not only means that the government is being led up the garden path into a fool’s paradise, but also that it is badly served.
