Justice Qazi Faez Isa of the Supreme Court said, ” There is no written that the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) has the power to appoint judges.”
He was addressing at t the annual dinner of the Sindh High Court Bar Association. Discussing the appointment of the judges, Justice Isa said he was shocked to witness how federal law minister Azam Nazeer Tarar and Attorney-General of Pakistan Ashtar Ali Ausaf for deviating and how the former law minister and AGP had changed their minds about what they had said before in a meeting of the judicial commission about promoting high court judges to the Supreme Court.
Justice Qazi Faez Isa, a member of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), said that a commission member’s vote is a trust that should be used without fear or favor.
Justice Isa said that the Constitution gives every commission member the right to vote and that members of the commission should talk about who should be appointed as judges in a thoughtful way.
He said federal ministers take the oath under the Constitution, just like judges do, promising to do the jobs without fear or favor. Still, they are now voting in commission without a good reason.
Justice Isa emphasized the lawyers to stay neutral and not ask the government for money. If the bars want the judiciary to stay independent, likely, it should also stay independent from the executive since the government grants come from taxpayer money.
He said the bar shouldn’t ask any law minister, chief minister, or prime minister to help them out and be thankful. Instead, he thought the money spent on getting government officials to and from work should improve public transportation and solve transportation problems.
Justice Isa said Pakistan had only been around for seven years when its democratic system was attacked. He also said that the courts at the time said this attack on democracy was against the Constitution.
Justice Isa said, “The seed of unconstitutional decisions made back then had a bad effect on the country.” He also said that an illegal decision led to the execution of a prime minister in the past.
“The politics of containers began with the person who waved their fist.”
Justice Isa reminded lawyers and citizens of the sacrifices they made for the rule of law during the lawyers’ movement. He said that lawyers should never forget that on May 12, 2007, more than 55 Karachi citizens gave their lives for the rule of law, and he vowed that mistakes from the past should never happen again.
He said that the lawyers’ movement wasn’t meant to protect judges’ jobs but rather to ensure that the courts were free from outside control.
Justice Isa also said that the lawyers of Balochistan had also given a lot to the justice system.
