Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Sardar Tariq Masood have expressed dismay over Supreme Court Chief Justice (CJ) Umar Ata Bandial’s speech and have said that he said much more than what he was supposed to say during his speech at the new judicial year ceremony.
Referring to the CJ Bandial’s speech at the new judicial year ceremony, the two judges including the senior puisne judges of the Supreme Court (SC) have written a joint letter that has addressed all the members of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP).
The letter has stated, “The object of the ceremony (as stated by the CJP) was to identify our priorities and set out our vision for the coming year, but the CJ said much more. He sought to justify decisions of the Supreme Court, respond to criticism of its judgments, and unilaterally speak on behalf of the Supreme Court.”
The letter also stated that the SC did not comprise of the CJ alone but included all the judges and the CJ commenting on pending cases was disconcerting. The two judges had also written letter after the commission’s July 28 meeting in which they had claimed that the meeting had disapproved the nominations to elevate judges.
The judges also stated that they had repeatedly called upon the JCP chairman to convene a meeting to enable making of nominations to the SC.
The copy of the joint letter has also been sent to the Registrar Supreme Court, also JCP’s acting secretary, saying that the letter and its Urdu translation was to be provided to media as the address of CJ Bandial was widely reported.
The letter also said, “All members of the JCP, including its chairman, are equal. The only additional responsibility of the CJ is for him to act as its chairman.”
