Justice Faez reference: KP Bar Council gives call for protest on July 2

PESHAWAR: Declaring the presidential reference filed against Justice Qazi Faez Isa as illegal, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council on Sunday announced boycott of courts and holding of peaceful protest outside the Supreme Court building on July 2.

The protest would coincide with the date for second hearing at the Supreme Judicial Council on the presidential reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa, the judge of the Supreme Court.

The decision was made at a joint meeting of KP Bar Council and president and general secretaries of all bar associations across the province. The bar council’s Vice-President Muhammad Saeed Khan was in the chair.

The meeting unanimously approved a five-point agenda. It declared the presidential reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa as unlawful and decided to observe complete boycott of courts in protest against the second hearing of the reference on July 2.

It was decided that lawyers from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would also participate in the lawyers’ peaceful protest outside the Supreme Court building.

The meeting also demanded the federal and provincial governments to ensure allocation of funds for the bar council and bar associations across the province in the annual budget.

The meeting asked the lawyers to submit their suggestions till July 10 for further proposed amendments in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Civil Courts (Amendment) Act 2017, which is not acceptable to the lawyers’ community.

The meeting extended the Health Insurance scheme for the lawyers.

The meeting also extended the MoU with a cellular company under which the lawyers would get 50 percent discount on the company’s SIM to be issued through the KP Bar Council.

Earlier, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) had also announced that the lawyers would hold peaceful protest on July 2 outside the Supreme

Court on the occasion of the second hearing at the Supreme Judicial Council on the presidential reference filed against Justice Qazi Faez Isa.

The SCBA had questioned as to why the Supreme Judicial Council chose to first take up the presidential reference filed against Justice Qazi Faez Isa while ignoring 26 other complaints.

On June 14, the five-member bench of the Supreme Judicial Council comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, Sindh High Court (SHC) Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Shaikh and Peshawar High Court (PHC) Chief Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth had conducted its preliminary hearing on the references. Attorney General Anwar Mansoor Khan, who was notified as prosecutor in these references, had presented his arguments before the bench.