Reference verdict
JUSTICE Qazi Faez Isa stands vindicated in his stance that the presidential reference against him was filed with mala fide intent. Along the way, the judiciary also managed to burnish its credentials as an independent arbiter. In a short verdict issued on Friday, the apex court quashed the reference and put an end to proceedings pending against Justice Isa in the Supreme Judicial Council. All signs emanating from the apex court during the last few weeks indicated that the government was heading towards a
humiliating denouement in its ham-fisted effort to target Justice Isa. Its questionable methods of collecting evidence came in for particularly strong criticism from the 10-judge full court bench. One judge asked whose bright idea it was to file the reference in the first place. However, the outcome has not put a line under this unfortunate chapter, and it may not be the end of the road for Justice Isa's travails. The Supreme Court's verdict also ordered the FBR, by a 10-7 majority, to seek an explanation from his family members about the source of funds for the offshore properties in their name that formed the crux of the reference. Within 75 days, the FBR's findings will be placed before the SJC, and based upon them, the judicial accountability
body can decide to proceed against Justice Isa. The directive is inexplicable and troubling: the reference in the SJC pertains to the judge, so why is the family being dragged into the matter? Moreover, given the antagonistic forces arrayed against Justice Isa, this could become another opportunity to harass and subject him to a media
trial by leaking documents without context, putting out deliberate disinformation, etc. Sadly, the PTI government has consistently eschewed good sense and probity in a bull-headed witch-hunt against political rivals and anyone it deems an adversary. Why a democratically elected government has pursued, to its own detriment, a judge who never until now has been accused of corruption and who,
moreover, upholds civilian supremacy through his judgements, is a question the PTI government itself can best answer. Justice Isa enjoys the reputation of being an independent-minded
Judge and has earned the wrath of many in the corridors of power with some of his verdicts. The most recent among these problematic
judgements was that on the Faizabad dharna, that shameful exercise in appeasing ultra right-wing elements. Justice Isa's wide-ranging
verdict laid bare the deliberate distortions in the political and social fabric that have eroded democratic principles and created the
climate for such manufactured chaos to be unleashed. And it said, loudly and clearly, that people's fundamental rights must always
take precedence and that authority is a sacred trust that must not be abused. Now that the government has seen its case against the
author of that verdict crumble like a house of cards, will it at last
abide by these words?