–Opposition demands president, prime minister’s resignation
ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar on Friday said that the government was satisfied over the Supreme Court’s (SC) judgment on Justice Qazi Faez Isa’s petition challenging the presidential reference under Article 209 of the Constitution.
He said this while addressing a press conference flanked by Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz after a 10-member larger SC bench quashed the presidential reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa for non-disclosure of his family members’ properties in his wealth statements.
“It was a sensitive issue and it was not anyone’s victory or defeat as such processes took place in a democracy,” he said, adding the government had no plan to file a review petition against the verdict.
Akbar said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), its Chairman Imran Khan, and he himself as an advocate, had great respect for the honourable superior court judges, and independence of the judiciary.
“The PTI believes in separation of judiciary, executive and legislature as was envisaged in the Constitution,” he added.
The SAPM said that under Article 209, there were three ways to file a reference against a judge. Either the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) itself takes notice or the government files a reference or any person approaches the council for action against a judge, he added.
He said that there was mechanism of accountability of every institution and the superior judiciary was answerable only to the SJC comprising five senior judges of the superior judiciary.
Akbar said that the reference was about three flats owned by the wife and children of the honourable judge, which had been challenged by the latter. The SC bench, in its short order, had declared the SJC’s proceedings and its show-cause notice as abate, he added.
As per the SC verdict, he said, within seven days, the inland commissioner of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) would issue notices to the judge’s spouse and children, who were the owners of property. “As per the SC direction, the FBR is required to compile a report regrading assets of Justice Isa’s family members and submit it to the SJC, which after reviewing it would take an appropriate action, if needed,” he added.
He also said that the government believed that the issues related to the judges of superior judiciary should be looked into by the SJC. The scheme of things given in the court verdict was appropriate, he added.
The SAPM clarified that with filing of the reference, the role of the government had ended and that was why neither he nor Law Minister Farough Naseem ever commented on the case. It was intentional as we wanted to avoid any controversy, he added.
He said that the superior courts judges were custodian of the Constitution, however, asking any question from them under the law was legal.
Akbar said that as he was addressing the press conference, a section of the media was giving a wrong impression that the word ‘mala fide’ had been used in the verdict and that the Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) had been declared illegal. He found no such thing in the short order, he said, adding the objective of holding the press conference was to clarify the government’s position that it would implement the detailed order, whenever it would be issued.
He also said that it was an important case which would be a beacon of light for future. The government had already stated that it had no objection to referring the case to FBR, but the petitioner did not agree to it, he added.
Earlier, the information minister said that the press conference was being held to give the government’s stance on the court verdict.
OPP DEMANDS PRESIDENT, PM’S RESIGNATION:
Meanwhile, the opposition parties in a joint statement welcomed the SC verdict and demanded the president and the prime minister resign from their posts for filing a reference based on mala fide intentions.
“President Arif Alvi, Prime Minister [Imran Khan] should resign on filing an illegal and unconstitutional reference against the judge of the Supreme Court,” read a joint statement issued by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Awami National Party (ANP), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) and National Party (NP).
“The truth about the ARU has come out and it should be shut down in the light of the SC order,” it added.
“The government tried to malign the judiciary by filing a reference based on mala fide intentions against the judge,” it further said, adding “this was an attempt to pressurise the judiciary.”
Separately, reacting to the verdict, PML-N leader Khawaja Asif, in a tweet, said that the superior court have added another chapter to the history of justice. “The legal fraternity upheld the supremacy of law. I pay tribute to the bench. The president and prime minister who filed the reference should resign if they have any shame,” he added.
AFTER THE VERDICT:
After the verdict was announced, former attorney general Irfan Qadir, while speaking to a local news outlet, said that mala fide intentions and misunderstanding are two different things.
“Mala fide intentions are made when there is substantial evidence, but misunderstanding took place in this case because properties were not declared and some people were of the opinion that non-declaration of the wife’s assets was misconduct,” he said.
“After Justice Isa’s wife clarified in court that her husband had no link with the [London] properties, the reference was rendered baseless and which lead to its dismissal,” he added.
Meanwhile, speaking to Pakistan Today, tax officials said that in the initial stage, a notice will be issued by the Islamabad Regional Tax Office commissioner to Justice Isa’s family, asking for a tax return and a wealth statement.
Henceforth, if the commissioner is satisfied with the respondents reply a report will be submitted to the FBR chairperson who will subsequently submit a report to the SJC.
However, if Justise Isa’s family’s response fails to satisfy the commissioner, the commissioner will issue a show cause demanding money trail of properties.
Subsequently, if Justice Isa’s family still fails to give a reasonable answer then the commissioner income tax can issue a final order demanding the submission or recovery of tax.
However, according to sources, Justice Isa’s family can challenge the order of the commissioner in different forums, including Commissioner Appeals, the Inland Revenue Tribunal, high courts and lastly the SC.
The officials said that that it is up to these forums to decide how long this case will actually take.
After 75 days, the FBR can update the SC about the proceedings held and that if a case is pending before the Commissioner Appeal, Inland Revenue Tribunal, High court or SC.
According to FBR officials, the board cannot raise questions on agricultural income as agricultural income is a provincial matter. However, FBR has the right to raise questions in the case of a non-resident Pakistani generating income from Pakistan.
