October 24, 2020

PRESS RELEASE

Mr. Abid Saqi, Vice Chairman and Mr. Azam Nazeer Tarar, Chairman, Executive Committee, Pakistan Bar Council, while welcoming the verdict of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, quashing thereby the Presidential Reference against Hon’ble Mr. Justice Qazi Faez Isa, Judge Supreme Court of Pakistan, have particularly noted, with satisfaction, the Apex Courts observations and reasons, given in its detailed Judgment, released yesterday, which also mentions:-
• That the Reference is tainted with malafide ;
• Presidents failure to form his considered opinion under Article 209(5) of the Constitution, after independent application of mind, as he did not get fair and objective advice from a third party on the question of law noted in the Reference and thus failed to notice its legal and procedural defects;

• That, instead, the President formed his opinion on the basis of “inadmissible advice” obtained from the Law Minister and the Attorney General for Pakistan, both of whom were involved in preparation of the Reference against the Petitioner , and as such had a conflict of interest;

• That the Reference was based on the illegal access to tax record of the Petitioner, without any valid authorization for the investigation, by the President and / or the Prime Minister;

• That there was neither any evidence nor the nomination of a predicate offense in the Reference to support the allegation of money laundering against the Petitioner;

• That there was no evidence that the Petitioner had violated the regime under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947;

• That the actions of the Respondents have violated not only the Constitution, the Rules of business and the provisions of AMLA, but have also ignored the laid down law which specifically set out certain safeguards to protect the superior Courts Judges from arbitrary actions of the executive; and

• That the allegations against the Petitioner, of violating the provisions of FERA is “an unsubstantiated assumption neither backed by evidence nor supported by relevant rule, that was allegedly breached”.

2. The observations and reasons given by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in its detailed Judgment, including those as mentioned above, clearly prove the Constitutional violations, illegalities and malafide of the Government and its functionaries, in filing the politically motivated Reference against the Petitioner, which has rightly been quashed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, although without taking any action against the delinquent Government and its Ministers and other officials, who in fact, are the mastermind and responsible of filing the Reference, aiming at to pressurize and disrepute the sacred institution of Judiciary.

3. The Bar Leaders, therefore, have demanded immediate resignations of the President of Pakistan, who sent the Reference to the Supreme Judicial Council without thorough consideration and application of his mind that being the constitutional requirement, and also that of Dr. Farogh Naseem, Federal Law Minister and Mr. Shahzad Akbar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister and head of the “Assets Recovery Unit”, who were the real masterminds of initiating the enquiry and preparing the Reference against the Petitioner and so deliberately attempted to cause bad name to the Judiciary.

4. Both the Vice Chairman and Chairman, Executive Committee, Pakistan Bar Council recalled that the Pakistan Bar Council, being not satisfied with findings of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, given in Paragraphs 3-11 of its short order dated 19-06-2020, in Justice Qazi Faiz Isa’s Case, has already filed a Review Petition in respect of referring the matter of the wife and children of the Petitioner, to the FBR for investigation withi specified time line and submission of its report within stipulated period of time to the Supreme Judicial Council, which needs to be fixed for hearing at an early date. The Council after minute perusal and examination of the detailed order, issued by the Hon’ble Supreme Court yesterday, may also file a CMA with its further submissions adding to its Review Petition, earlier filed in the Supreme Court, for reviewing the Judgment of the Apex Court.

SECRETARY