Strong lawyers’ panel being formed to plead Justice Isa case in SJC

ISLAMABAD: A strong panel comprising senior legal wizards of the country is being constituted for pleading the case of senior Judge of the Supreme Court justice Qazi Faez Isa in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) in the reference filed against him for allegedly having properties in London.After the SJC has issued show cause notices in the presidential reference, Justice Isa had started deliberation with senior lawyers for availing legal remedies and options available to him for pleading his case in the reference filed against him.Sources close to the development confided to The News on Wednesday that a strong panel, comprising senior lawyers of the country, has been asked to join the squad for pleading the case of Justice Qazi Faez Isa in the Supreme Judicial Council.It was learnt that the services of top lawyers from four provinces of the country is being hired in order to argue before the SJC against Justice Isa.Sources said that senior lawyers including three former presidents of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has started coordination with the lawyers from all the four provinces of the country to make a strong panel for representing Justice Isa before the SJC.It was learnt that Hamid Khan, Amanullah Kanrani and Kamran Murtaza, former presidents of the SCBA were assigned the task to contact senior lawyers of all the provinces.Sources confirmed to The News that the three top lawyers have contacted former SCBA president Qazi Anwar and Abdul Latif Afridi, the incumbent President of Peshawar High Court Bar Association to be part of the said panel and they in response have consented to be the part of the said panel. They said that the panel of lawyers’ team will be headed by former president SCBA and former attorney general Munir A Malik.Likewise, the sources said that the three lawyers also contacted Quetta-based lawyer and former SCBA president and prominent figure of the Lawyer’s movement Ali Ahmed Kurd besides contacting former SCBA president Rashid A Rizvi and both the lawyers also consented to be the member of the said panel.Vice Chairman Pakistan Bar Council Syed Amjad Shah, who along with SCBA President Amanullah Kanrani, has been staging sit-in at the Supreme Court Principal seat Islamabad on the day, the SJC takes up the presidential references against Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice KK Agha, has also consented to be the part of Panel of Lawyers. “I have been contacted and I consented to be the part of the said panel”, Amjad Shah told The News.He however, said that what are the details and what will be the strategy he will be able to know after he reached Islamabad. Amjad said this while he was on way to Islamabad, returning from DI Khan.Meanwhile, SCBA President Amanullah Kanrani is holding an important press conference today (Thursday) at Supreme Court and he is expected to announce the said panel.A presidential reference had been filed in the SJC against Justice Qazi Faez Isa of the Supreme Court and Justice Karim Khan (KK) Agha of Sindh High Court alleging them for having properties in London but they did not disclose it in their wealth statements.The SJC is the only constitutional authority mandated by Article 209 of the Constitution of Pakistan to conduct inquiries into allegations of incapacity or misconduct against a judge of the Supreme Court or of a high court.Justice Qazi Faez Isa, senior Judge of the Supreme Court however, had already rejected the allegations levelled in the presidential reference filed against him, saying he and his family have been maliciously maligned by half-truth and innuendos by members of the government which is deeply distressing both for his family and himself.A five-member bench of the SJC comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, Sindh High Court (SHC) Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Shaikh and Peshawar High Court (PHC) Chief Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth is currently hearing the presidential references filed against Justice Qazi Faez Isa of Supreme Court and Justice KK Agha of the Sindh High Court.

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