The government’s review petition against the Supreme Court’s judgement in the Justice Qazi Faez Isa case was turned down by the apex court’s registrar on Wednesday, as the office said that one case could not be reviewed twice.
Reacting to the development, the Ministry of Law and Justice issued a statement, wherein it said that the government “preferred a Curative Review Petition on which certain objections were raised by the Office of the Supreme Court”, adding that the petition “shall be re-filed in due course of time” in accordance with the law, after addressing the registrar office’s objections.
Last month, the apex judicial body set aside the court’s previous order directing the Federal Board of Revenue to hold an inquiry into the properties held by the senior judge’s wife and children in the United Kingdom.
Concluding the nearly two-year-long legal saga, the SC, by a majority of six to four, had on April 26 overturned its June 19, 2020, majority judgement that required verification and subsequent findings by the tax authorities of three foreign properties in the name of the wife and children of Justice Isa.
The presidential reference against Justice Isa — in line to become the chief justice on September 18, 2023, for 13 months — was already thrown out by the SC as “invalid” in June last year.
The reference filed by the government in May 2019 had alleged that Justice Isa acquired three properties in London on lease in the name of his wife and children between 2011 and 2015, but did not disclose them in his wealth returns. Through his petition, Justice Isa had pleaded before the court that the powers that be wanted to remove him from his constitutional office by hook or by crook. President Arif Alvi, he had claimed, did not form his own independent opinion before the filing of the reference against him.
Reportedly, days after its judgement on the review petitions, the Supreme Judicial Council, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed, decided not to proceed any further against Justice Isa in the light of the April 26 10-judge SC verdict.
