Early on Thursday, a video made its way to social media showing an awkward encounter between the senior-most judges of the Supreme Court: Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Senior Puisne Judge Justice Qazi Faez Isa.
A ceremony was held to administer the oath of office to Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rahman as the new chief justice of the Federal Shariat Court in the SC building on Thursday. Justice Bandial, clad in his official robe, accompanied Justice Rahman to the podium and administered the oath. That’s when the cameras stopped rolling for the TV coverage.
But not all cameras stopped rolling. The video that you have probably seen on social media by now was fellow court reporter Adeel Sarfaraz. It showed the junior judge interacting with the crowd as the ceremony ended.
However, as Justice Bandial approached, Justice Isa seemed to linger for a moment before leaving his conversation partner to the CJP and deciding to join another group.
There was no interaction and no exchange of pleasantries. There was no interaction between them before or after the clip was recorded either.
The video seemed to confirm what has already been said for months, at least among those who frequent the court. Interactions between the two highest judges in the highest court in the land are rare. It is widely speculated, and with good reason, that the two are not on speaking terms. They have not been on the same bench for a long time either.
Some accounts of these tensions are wild exaggerations. In one case the court’s public relations officer had to issue a clarification saying that judges of the Supreme Court had not engaged in a public scuffle.
While actual punches have not and likely will never be exchanged, their judgments and remarks certainly pack a punch these days.
The chief justice recently stopped a commission led by Justice Isa from conducting an inquiry into audio leaks, one of which could implicate a relative of CJP Bandial. While hearing the case against the commission, the chief justice had remarked, “I am sorry to say that efforts have been made regrettably, maybe unknowingly, to draw a wedge between the judges of the court.”
But when orders for the commission to stop working reached Justice Isa the next day, he had a few words of his own.
“I do not understand what has happened to the law profession,” he said. “The easiest thing is to blame a judge. The judges neither have an army nor police — only ethical authority.”
With perhaps the first public display of the fact that not all is well between the current and future chief justices, the matters of both the ‘wedge’ and the ‘ethical responsibility’ are worth pondering over.
