Pakistan Supreme Court on Monday in a judgement acquited Justice Qazi Faez Isa from the allegations levelled against him for not disclosing his family members foreign assets in his wealth statement in a June 2020 presidential reference and said Isa will have the opportunity to question Imran Khan government and his detractors through his review petition.
Isa's review petition was accepted by six judges while four opposed it. The Court also declared the inquiry of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) against Isa and his wife null and void, reported Asia Times.
Since authoring the famous Faizabad sit-in verdict in 2019, accusing the sacred cows of staging the sit-in of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) was a decision that exposed the nexus of faith merchants and invisible forces, Isa has been facing the wrath of the powers from Imran Khan's hybrid regime of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). A presidential reference against him PTI forced Isa and his wife to face unjust inquiries about the means of their wealth.
Imad Zafar, writing in Asia Times said that Isa has proved his mettle against the odds, for any common judge, it would not have been possible to withstand the pressure of the visible and invisible authorities.
Now Isa will have the opportunity to question his detractors through his review petition. This also means the end of the harassment of his wife Serena Isa through the FBR inquiries.
In Pakistan, government and invisible forces have typically employed a formula of victimizing dissenting judges and politicians by making them subject to inquiries over assets allegedly beyond their means.
Many politicians and civil servants prefer not to challenge the status quo, fearing the wrath of the government or the powerful quarters, reported Asia Times.
Isa, however, belongs to a different breed - he made it clear from Day 1 that he would never surrender and would take his detractors down, said Zafar.
The Supreme Court last June already dismissed the presidential reference against Justice Isa. However, it authorized the FBR to probe the matter and compile a report of its findings after investigating Isa's wife Serena and her financial dealings.
The government cleverly changed the FBR chairman to get the desired result, and Serena Isa appeared in front of the board on numerous occasions. All her replies were challenged by the FBR, and it seemed that it already had made up its mind not to accept Serena Isa's version.
This was the hardest of battle as Serena Isa, walking with a stick, appeared every now and then in front of FBR, but none of her replies were accepted.
But not only Justice Isa but his wife as well showed nerves of steel, and Isa decided to challenge the proceedings by filing a review petition against the Supreme Court verdict of the presidential reference, reported Asia Times.
It is to be hoped that the other judges of the higher judiciary will learn from Isa's defiance and now will try to repair the image of the judiciary, which has been tainted by controversial political decisions and by aligning with the country's dictators, said Zafar.
In a country that is run indirectly by the invisible forces and where everything from the government to the mainstream political parties is a hybrid entity, it is nothing short of a miracle that there are still judges like Isa who show resilience and challenge the status quo.
The country currently is run by a hybrid regime and the invisible quarters have silenced nearly every dissenting politician and journalist.
We saw just a few days back how the famous journalist and ex-chairman of the Pakistan Electronic Media Authority (PEMRA), Absar Alam, was shot in front of his house. Absar, a critic of the military establishment, was lucky to survive the assassination attempt, wrote Zafar.
( With inputs from ANI )
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