Responding to Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan letter, Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa has said that he was disappointed over allegations of not consulting the former in bench formation.

“My door is always open to all my colleagues, I am available on intercom and via cell phone, but surprisingly you neither came to talk to me nor reached out to me by intercom or cell phone to express your concerns,” CJP Isa responded in a letter on November 18. The letter was published on the apex court website on Tuesday.

Earlier, Justice Ahsan in a letter revealed that special benches were formed to hear appeals against the ban on the trial of civilians in military court, and Justice Mazahar Naqvi’s appeals were not approved by the judges committee.

CJP Isa in his reply said that he had immediately attempted to contact Justice Ahsan after receiving his letter but found out the latter had left for Lahore early on November 17 afternoon, before the end of the working day.

“We are paid to work six days, not four and a half days,” CJP stated.

He said the primary and first responsibility of a judge was to attend to judicial work and thus he had initially scheduled the committee meeting after all work would be done by Friday afternoon.

“If I did not want to consult either you or Justices Sardar Tariq Masood would I have supported, believed and imposed the process of consultation on myself when a Bench, of which you were a member, had suspended the operation of the Act?” CJP argued.

The top judge said the first meeting of the committee was delayed due to Justice Ahsan’s non-availability and then another due to him attending a conference in Hong Kong while two other meetings were also delayed for other reasons.

On a fresh roster, CJP Isa said the issuance was necessary as some judges were unavailable, including Justice Ahsan out of the country for a conference, and “Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi not being available for work on Fridays.”