Chief Justice-designate Qazi Faez Isa has said that constitutional institutions such as the Supreme Court should not operate on the whims of an individual, adding that Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial has put other judges of the Supreme Court into “unnecessary dilemma”.
Justice Isa expressed these views in a 30-page statement issued in Urdu. He attached with the statement earlier notes and orders in this regard. This is the same statement that the judge read out in the open court on Thursday when he stated that the nine-judge bench, in which he was included, was not a properly constituted court. Following the statement, Justice Isa had announced that he would not sit on the bench, but he was not recusing.
Referring to his May 19 appointment as head of the three-member judicial commission to probe audio leaks, he noted that a bench of the Supreme Court, headed by the chief justice, had halted the proceedings of this commission. The case was again taken up on May 31, but later postponed for an indefinite period.
According to Justice Isa, he had been put into a quandary from which he could only escape when the petitions against the Supreme Court Practice and Procedure law were resolved, or at least the stay granted against the enforcement of the law was removed.
