Supreme Court issues detailed verdict of Justice Qazi Faez Isa case

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Saturday released detailed written judgment on the review petition filed by Justice Qazi Faez Isa’s wife Sarina Isa, ARY News reported.

The written verdict was issued nine months and two days after the decision announced by a ten-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial with a split 6-4 verdict in the favour of Mrs Sarina Isa. Justice Yahya Afridi penned an additional note of the verdict.

The Supreme Court had announced a brief verdict of the case on April 26, 2021.

The majority decision from the top court said that no action could be taken against the wife and children of Justice Qazi Faez Isa after the apex court withdrew its direction to send Sarina Isa’s case to the FBR.

“This judgment must announce that no one, including a Judge of the highest court in the land, is above the law. At the same time, no one, including a Judge of the highest court, can be denied his right to be dealt with in accordance to the law,” the judgment said.

The impugned directions “are found to have been made by this Court without adhering to the principle of natural justice, fair trial and due process.”

Though the directives made by the Supreme Court were in good faith, the court “on its own, without putting to the parties on notice, without informing them what the Court was contemplating to do and without inviting and hearing their arguments on the matters dealt with therein, the above-noted legal and constitutional aspects of the impugned directions with their ramifications were not present in the mind of the Court while making the impugned directions” according to the judgment.

The court retracted from decision to send the cases to the FBR in the review petition as previously they supported the decision of referring Sarina Isa’s cases to the tax body.