SC verdict in Justice Isa case: PM, president should step down, says opposition

ISLAMABAD: Welcoming the dismissal of presidential reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa by the Supreme Court, the combined opposition on Friday demanded that Prime Minister Imran Khan and President Arif Alvi should step down on the public demand for filing an unlawful, unconstitutional, and a false reference based on pure mala fide intentions.

In a joint statement, PML-N, PPP, Awami National Party, JUI-F, JI, Qaumi Watan Party, National Party (Hasil Khan Bazinjo) said the truth about the Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) had been exposed and such instruments of political victimisation and vengeance-driven agenda must be shut down at once. They said the government tried to twist the arm of the superior judiciary by knowingly filing a false, misleading, and defaming reference based on their mala fide intentions.

They congratulated the judiciary over this great victory by upholding the law, the Constitution, and its supremacy. They also congratulated the lawyers and bar councils all across the country and paid them rich tribute for rejecting and defeating such fascist mindset. They said lawyers had once again played an exemplary role at a crucial moment in the history of the country adding that this episode had exposed Imran Khan's mindset.

The Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) on Friday termed the reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa a conspiracy against the freedom of the judiciary and asked if there would be the accountability of president, prime minister, and law minister following the landmark verdict. In a statement, the PPPP leader Dr Nafisa Shah said eight years before on June 18, 2012, the then prime minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani was disqualified, as he refused to deviate from the Constitution.

In charge PPP social media and research coordination cell Sehar Kamran demanded the resignation of President Dr Arif Alvi after the dismissal of presidential reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa. “President Dr Arif Alvi has lost the moral obligation to remain in the post and I demand his resignation,” she said.

She said the verdict of the Supreme Court had exposed the ill intentions of the government and exposed the mindset of Prime Minister Imran Khan.