A ten-member full-court headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial resumed hearing on a set of petitions challenging the presidential reference filed against the judge on Friday.
According to a lawyer present at court during the proceedings of the session, Salahuddin Ahmed, the bench asked former law minister and government's counsel Farogh Naseem to 'explain under which law Justice Isa must explain assets belonging to his wife and why tax authorities don’t simply ask the wife who’s an independent taxpayer.'
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To this query, Farogh Naseem retorted that this duty stems from Holy Quran. He used the religion to defend a petition filed in the Supreme Court.
He also made an argument in favour of the asset reveal saying that 'husbands are the protectors and guardians of their wives and responsible for them.'
Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah was not convinced with the argument and said that this statement takes away the right of women to be independent wealth owners under the legislation that safeguards the independent legal status of women in Pakistan.
Justice Sajjad Ali Shah also criticised Farogh Naseem for quoting the verses of Holy Quran without their complete context.
Justice Qazi Amin said that this argument would be a fallacy in case of Hindu judges but to that Barrister Farogh quoted some ancient Hindu traditions saying, 'Position will not change because for Hindus there is no concept of independence between husband and wife at all! After all, Hindus bury the wife after the husband dies!'