PETITIONS AGAINST AUDIO LEAKS COMMISSION.

ISLAMABAD    -    The federal govern­ment Tuesday urged Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Umar Ata Ban­dial, Justice Ijazul Ah­san and Justice Munib Akhtar to recuse from a five-member bench hearing the petitions against the formation of inquiry commission to probe audio leaks.

In this connection, the government filed Civil Miscellaneous Applica­tion (CMA) under Rule 5 and 6 of Supreme Court Rules, further request­ing the Chief Justice to reconstitute the bench to decide the questions raised in the petitions.

Pakistan Teh­reek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan, President Supreme Court Bar As­sociation Abid Shahid Zuberi, SCBA Secre­tary General Muqtedir Akhtar Shabbir and ad­vocate Riaz Hanif Rahi have filed the petitions against the inquiry commission.

A five-member bench of the apex court com­prising Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Shahid Wa­heed, while hearing the petitions against the inquiry commission, on May 26 had suspended the operation of the notification and granted stay against the proceed­ing of the Commission until May 31. The federal government on May 20 had set up the Commis­sion to inquire into the veracity of the wide circulations of audio in the media and social media.

The inquiry commission com­prises Justice Qazi Faez Isa, se­nior puisne judge Supreme Court, Chief Justice High Court of Balochistan Naeem Akhtar Af­ghan and Chief Justice Islamabad High Court Aamer Farooq.

The CMA said that a fair justice system demands and sustains upon the existence of any impar­tial judge, being a principle - that “no man shall be a judge in his own cause.” It pointed out that on 26-05-23 the federation re­quested the chief justice to re­cuse from the bench, but that was not entertained whilst plac­ing reliance upon the Supreme Court judgments. The applica­tion said that one of the rules of natural justice was that the adju­dicator should be impartial.

It said that the CJP’s inclu­sion in the bench hearing pleas against the commission, formed to investigate audio leaks “per­taining to a very close fami­ly member”, raised grave con­cerns regarding impartiality. “It is important to reiterate that the questions raised above pertain only to the appearance of impar­tiality and conflict of interest and therefore are distinct and sep­arate to bias which has neither been raised nor is the conten­tion of the respondent,” the pe­tition said. The petition further said that some of the audio leaks also concerned two other mem­bers of the bench, Justice Ahsan and Justice Akhtar. “Consequent­ly, propriety and good sense dic­tate and demand that Justice Ah­san and Justice Akhtar may also graciously recuse themselves from hearing the captioned peti­tion,” the plea said.

Meanwhile, Minister for De­fence Khawaja Muhammad Asif on Tuesday asked Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial to “distance himself” from hearing the audio leaks case to ensure that true justice is served to the aggrieved. 

He was referring to a five-mem­ber bench order of the apex court, headed by the chief jus­tice, which stayed the proceed­ings on various petitions chal­lenging the constitution of the judicial commission formed by the federal government, tasked to inquire about the veracity of audio leaks allegedly involving the SC judge and a relative of the top judge. 

The commission was headed by the most senior judge of the SC after the CJP, Justice Qazi Faez Isa. It also compromised of Is­lamabad High Court Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Balochistan High Court Chief Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.

Addressing the floor of the House of National Assembly, the defence minister expressed his opinion on the ‘wedge between the judiciary and the parlia­ment’ continuing for more than a year, creating political unrest in the country. 

The minister recalled that for­mer chief justice Iftikhar Mu­hammad Chaudhry’s son was involved in a legal battle with Real Estate Tycoon Malik Riaz. He said the former chief justice recused himself from the case due to the conflict of interest. The minister regretted that such norms and precedents had been “abandoned by few judges of the apex court”.