Reference against Justice Isa was a ‘mistake’: Imran

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan has admitted that the filing of the presidential reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa was a 'mistake'. The former prime minister said this during a meeting with the Insaf Lawyers Forum (ILF).

Sources privy to the meeting said the party’s lawyers drew the PTI chairman’s attention to the matter, asking: “Was it not incorrect to file a presidential reference against Justice Faez Isa?” Imran tersely responded, saying he agreed that ‘it was a mistake’.

“We explained to our party chairman that we should have opted for a middle way instead of going for such an extreme step against Justice Qazi Faez Isa, as confrontation with the state institutions or those who are part of them, is always inadvisable,” sources quoted the lawyers as saying. PTI Chairman Imran Khan said that because of this move, a section of the judiciary was unhappy with the party.

It has been learnt that then attorney general of Pakistan Khalid Jawed Khan had explained to former PM Imran Khan that Justice Isa was an upright and honest judge. The PTI chairman had called the meeting to discuss ways and means to activate the Insaf Lawyers Forum platform in the changed scenario and to devise a strategy to deal with the harassment of PTI’s social media activists.