A five-judge Supreme Court bench headed by the CJP and including Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan resolved a case involving a news story citing Justice Isa as announcing the allocation of Rs500 million to all legislators ahead of the Senate polls.
“The Hon Chief Justice of Pakistan, therefore, observed that in these circumstances it would not be proper for the Hon Judge to hear the matter considering that he had already filed a petition against the Prime Minister of Pakistan, in his personal capacity. Therefore, to uphold the principle of un-biasness and impartiality, it would be in the interest of justice that the Hon Judge should not hear matters involving the Prime Minister of Pakistan,” read Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed’s five page order.
A debate has started in the Supreme Court on whether Justice Isa should be allowed to hear cases pertaining to the affairs of the government and Prime Minister Imran Khan.
In previous cases that involved both the justice and the government, Supreme Court in 1989 had “one set of judges of a constituted Bench of Supreme Court, cannot issue a direction to the other set of Judges or any of the Judges of the Bench, not to associate themselves or himself in hearing of a matter”.