The case against military courts in the Supreme Court took a sudden turn when Justice Qazi Faez Isa distanced himself from the hearing the case.
The senior judge said that he could not be part of a bench until the case on the Supreme Court Practice and Procedure bill was decided.
“I do not accept today’s court,” Justice Isa said.
However, he added that he did not object to the hearing but could not sit on the bench. He also questioned how the last petition filed by Justice Faez Isa against military trial had been marked at the top in the cause list.
Senior advocate Aitzaz Ahsan asked Justice Isa to sit and hear the case, as it was a case of ‘importance’.
However, Justice Isa got up and left the courtroom after explaining his views.
Responding to Ahsan’s comments requesting Justice Isa to hear the case, the chief justice remarked that ‘something would be done’ about it.
Following Justice Isa’s remarks, Justice Tariq Masood also expressed his agreement with the senior puisne judge and said the petitions against the review bill must be heard first.
Advocate Latif Khosa told the court that it was a matter of 250 million people. To this, Justice Masood replied that the matter would be seen when it came before the court.
Following the departure of two judges from the bench, the chief justice reconstituted a seven-member bench without them.
The bench included Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Mazahar Naqvi and Justice Ayesha Malik. Then bech restarted the hearing at 1:30pm.
Sources said that after the bench retired with the objections of Justice Isa and Justice Masood, Sardar Latif Khosa met the chief justice of Pakistan in his chambers and requested that the case be continued.
Latif Khosa appealed to the CJP to issue a stay order against the functioning of the military courts but the court refused.
When Khosa complained that it was a pressing problem since houses were being broken into, the CJP asked him to ‘relax’.
“Don’t be emotional,” the cheif justice remarked, “the answer to everything is not a stay order.” He added that in both military and civil courts, the accused had the right to appoint counsel.
The CJP then told the attorney general that the matter of journalists and lawyers being harassed should be looked into. He also said that he hoped that no trials had begun in military courts yet.
The hearing will resume on Friday.
