Contempt plea against Justice Isa disposed of

The Supreme Court of Pakistan disposed of on Monday a contempt petition filed against Justice Qazi Faez Isa, after the petitioner withdrew his plea.

The matter, related to the audio leaks commission headed by Justice Isa, was heard by the Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial in his chamber.

Advocate Riaz Hanif Rahi had earlier filed a plea in connection with the withdrawal of his contempt petition against Justice Isa and two other high court chief justices, namely Justice Naeem Akhtar (Balochistan) and Justice Aamer Farooq (Islamabad).

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The CJP had fixed the matter for hearing today (July 31) in his chamber.

The initial contempt plea was filed in connection with the commission formed by the government to investigate audio leaks concerning the judiciary as well as Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz over the violation of the apex court larger bench’s May 26 order wherein the notification for the inquiry body was suspended.

Advocate Rahi had contended in his contempt petition that the three members of the inquiry commission conducted their proceedings by “encroaching” upon Courtroom No 2 of the apex court till about 2pm without any legal authority.

He had argued that despite the top court’s stay order, Justice Isa conducted the commission’s proceedings for some other collateral purpose and the other two members remained silent.

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The petition stated that Maryam had criticized the CJP after the larger bench’s May 26 order.

Subsequently, the SC registrar returned the contempt petition by raising objections. The registrar had pointed out the scandalous language used in the petition and noted that the petitioner had failed to specify what parts of the top court’s order were violated by the commission. Based on this, the registrar marked the petition as unmaintainable.

Later, Rahi decided to withdraw the contempt petition along with his appeal against the registrar’s office.

Interestingly, this is the second matter related to Justice Isa that was fixed for hearing before CJP Bandial in his chamber.