Justice Mansoor skips as full court reference held to honor outgoing CJP Faez Isa

ISLAMABAD: A full-court reference was held in the Supreme Court to farewell the outgoing Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa on Friday, which was joined by lawyers and fellow judges.

Justice Qazi Faez Isa is set to retire today (Friday) as the 29th CJP, after serving for more than a year. Justice Yahya Afridi, who was appointed after being nominated by the Special Parliamentary Committee (SPC), will take oath as CJP on Saturday (tomorrow).

President Asif Ali Zardari will administer the oath to the new Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP).

Six SC judges including senior puisne judge Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Athar Minallah, and Justice Malik Shehzad skipped the full-court reference.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, who would have become the top judge if the 26th Constitutional Amendment had not been in place, refused to attend the reference proceedings over Justice Isa’s overstepping from his constitutional role.

A total of 16 judges, including two ad-hoc and two from the Federal Shariat Court, attended the event. Justice Afridi and Justice Aminuddin Khan attended the proceedings and sat next to Chief Justice Isa.

Justices Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, and Shahid Waheed also attended the gathering. CJP Isa’s wife Sarina Isa and other family members were also present during the farewell session.

In his farewell speech during a full-court reference at the Supreme Court, outgoing CJP Qazi Faez Isa said “Hours are left to freedom”, reflecting on his 42-year-long judicial career.

Justice Isa thanked all those who came to attend the event, including Justice Yahya, his fellow judges at the SC, the judges of the Shariat Appellate bench, AGP Awan, and lawyers Farooq H. Naek and SCBA Chairman Shaukat.

In his emotional farewell speech, outgoing CJP Isa described his appointment as chief justice of Balochistan as a watershed moment in his career. “I accepted the position at a time when there was a Constitutional crisis as the BHC was dysfunctional.”

He expressed his gratitude to the then-CJP Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry who chose him as the Balochistan High Court chief justice.

“I was married right after I completed my studies. My relation with my wife and this profession is of an equivalent period of 42 years,” he remarked.

“My wife was behind a lot of the work that people give me credit for. She only had two conditions: her name not be taken and she would not take any renumeration. A lot of things in public areas, such as improving parks, making forms, and designing stationery and websites, she helped in a lot of things,” he noted.

In his address on the occasion, Justice Afridi said that he found CJP Isa to be “one of the best, hearing human beings” and got to learn a lot from him but also warned of his fury.

Justice Afridi further said that today’s luncheon in CJP Qazi Faez Isa’s honor is funded personally, not by the state, highlighting the warm relations among the judiciary.

Justice Afridi noted that “whenever he had differences of opinion with Justice Isa on various benches, Justice Isa always listened to them openly — a characteristic which very few possess”. Designated CJP Justice Afridi further affirmed his commitment to upholding the principles of devaluation of powers.

Justice Mansoor’s letter

Earlier today, Senior puisne Judge Justice Mansoor Ali Shah wrote a letter to the Supreme Court’s Registrar explaining his reason for not attending the full-court reference of outgoing chief justice Qazi Faez Isa.

In a letter, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah said when former Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar overstepped the boundaries of his constitutional role and ventured into matters beyond his jurisdiction, he made the decision not to attend his Reference.

“Today, I find myself compelled to make the same decision, though for different but more worrying reasons,” the senior puisne judge wrote in the letter.

Justice Shah said that Chief Justice Isa instead of safeguarding the rights of all people, the independence of the judiciary, and securing justice for all, remained complacent and indifferent to external influences and pressures on the judiciary.

“Instead of standing as a bulwark against interference, he opened the gates wide, betraying the judiciary’s sacred role as a check and balance on power. He showed neither the courage nor the moral fortitude to defend the judiciary but rather ceded ground to those who sought to weaken the courts for their gain thereby compromising the very foundation of the rule of law,” a senior SC judge wrote.

Expressing his decision not to attend a Reference, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah said that a Reference and celebrating such a tenure would send a message that a Chief Justice can betray his institution, erode its strength, act petty and low, and still be celebrated as an honorable servant of justice.