On 25th October 2024 the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Qazi Faez Isa, who was a shameless toady of the Pakistan Establishment, is retiring, and all his efforts to get a Constitutional Court created, with himself as its head, and the age of superannuation fixed at 68 years, so that he may get an extension, have failed
On this occasion one can only use the words of Oliver Cromwell when he dismissed the Rump Parliament of England on 20th April 1653 :
” It is not fit that you should sit here any longer. You have sat here too long for any good you have been doing lately. Depart I say, and let us be done with you. In the name of God go.“
Ever since he became the CJP on 17th September 2023, Qazi Faez Isa, instead of behaving in an impartial and independent manner, as an upright judge is expected to do, shamelessly surrendered before, and did the bidding of, the Pakistan Establishment, in a servile manner, as detailed in the links below :
https://indicanews.com/the-need-for-an-independent-judiciary-in-pakistan
https://indicanews.com/justice-markandey-katju-what-is-happening-in-pakistan
Even a petty employee of a bakery in Islamabad said to Qazi Faez Isa when he went to buy donuts ” Laanat hai aap par ” ( i.e. ” May curses be upon you ” ). What could be more shameful for the head of the country’s judiciary ?
A judge takes an oath to uphold the Constitution and protect the Constitutional rights and liberties of the people, but his oath meant nothing to Qazi Faez Isa. Over 14,000 persons were arrested on trumped up and concocted charges, and have been languishing in jail in Pakistan for over an year in inhuman conditions after the events of 9th May, 2023 ( which many say were stage managed ). But Qazi Faez Isa turned a Nelson”s eye to all this, and instead of hearing the bail applications of those in jail, preferred hearing old cases e.g. the validity of Bhutto’s trial, or the Faizabad dharna case, though Bhutto was long dead, having been hanged in 1979, and no one in Pakistan is now interested in the validity of his trial. It seemed that Qazi Faez Isa was more interested in the dead rather than in the living.
By a flagrantly dishonest verdict Qazi Faez Isa deprived former Prime Minister Imram Khan’s PTI of its election symbol, so as to damage it in the coming elections.
https://indicanews.com/justice-markandey-katju-four-glaring-flaws-in-pakistan-supreme-court-judgment
Qazi Faez Isa would bully lawyers and was rude to them. He did not even show respect to his brother and sister judges, and always tried to dominate over them, as if he was a headmaster in a school, forgetting that he was only the first among equals.
A court’s atmosphere should be of serenity and tranquillity, with judges speaking less, and lawyers more. As former Lord Chancellor of England, Francis Bacon, said ” A much talking judge is like an ill tuned symbol ”.
But Qazi Faez Isa was constantly speaking in court, and if a counsel began speaking, Qazi Faez Isa would invariably cut him short rudely, and interrupt him after two or three sentences.
His behaviour in the 15 member Full Bench of the Supreme Court set up to hear the challenge to the Supreme Court ( Practices and Procedure ) Act was atrocious, and turned the hearing into a village panchayat, as I mentioned in my interview by Pakistani journalist Waqar Bagga.
The Registrar of the Supreme Court has written a letter to the Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association President that a reference will be held in the Chief Justice’s courtroom on 25th October at 10.30 a.m. on the retirement of the CJP.
Surprisingly, in the same letter the Registrar has asked the President of the Bar Association to send a copy of the speech he will deliver at the reference in advance.
Now I have been 20 years a lawyer and 20 years a Judge, and never was the President of the Bar Association asked to submit his speech in advance. In fact it is a gross insult to the entire bar to demand the President’s speech in advance, and I would recommend to the President to refuse this request ( which was obviously made at Qazi Faez Isa’s request ).
Let me conclude with a story, which relates to the period when I was still a lawyer in the Allahabad High Court ( before I became a Judge of the Court in 1991 ).
The then Chief Justice of the High Court was retiring, and a reference was held on the day of his retirement.
Now this Chief Justice had a very bad reputation. He was dishonest, rude to lawyers, and had several other vices.
For a few months before his retirement he began going to many cities in UP to lay foundation stones, bearing his name, on several semi constructed court buildings, obviously thinking that would make him immortal.
In his speech at the reference ( in which I was present ), the Allahabad High Court Bar Association President, Mr A.D. Giri ( who later became the Solicitor General of India ), said :
” My Lord, let me tell you a story from the Mahabharat ( an epic of India ). There was a king who thought greatly of himself. When he died, he went to the gate of heaven, which was surrounded by a thick wall. On the wall were embedded plaques of earlier deceased kings with their names, but he did not find any plaque bearing his name.
Incensed, he asked the guard where was his plaque ? The guard replied ” The whole wall is covered with plaques, and there is no vacant space left. You can tear out one of the plaques bearing some deceased king’s name, and put there a plaque bearing your name. But there is no guarantee that afterwards another deceased king may come, who may tear out your plaque and put there one bearing his name ”.
