ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday postponed the hearing of a set of petitions seeking review of the Justice Qazi Faez Isa judgement since the counsel representing the petitioner judge quarantined himself after his associate tested positive for Covid-19.

A six-judge SC bench, headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial, observed that the court would wait for recovery of the principal counsel, Muneer A. Malik, who had sought adjournment of the case for one month.

The counsel had pleaded before the court that he had been advised to quarantine himself on Saturday because a member of his family as well as an associate counsel, Barrister Salahuddin Ahmed, had tested positive for Covid 19.

Muneer Malik had requested the court to grant a four-week adjournment. However, the court adjourned the case to Dec 8.

Muneer tells court a family member and an associate lawyer have contracted Covid

On Oct 28, the Supreme Court had adjourned the hearing to Nov 16 after accepting a plea for adjournment.

The court is seized with a set of petitions seeking review of a June 19 short order on the filing of a presidential reference against Justice Isa, as well as the Oct 23 detailed reasoning behind the short order.

Already amended petitions filed earlier against the review have been moved by a number of petitioners.

During the hearing, Mrs Sarina Isa, the wife of Justice Isa, reminded the bench about her application in which she had sought inclusion in the full court of all judges who had earlier decided her husband’s petition against filing of the presidential reference and issued a short order on June 19.

But the court decided to hear her application later and asked the counsel representing different petitioners to submit additional grounds if they want to.

Law Minister Dr Farogh Naseem and Additional Attorney General Aamir Rehman also appeared before the court.

In her application, Mrs Isa had expressed the hope that Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed would ensure that Justice Maqbool Baqar, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Yahya Afridi were not excluded from the bench hearing her review petition.

She contended that although she and her children were not a party to any of the cases (constitutional petitions against filing of the presidential reference against Justice Isa), they were mentioned 194 times in the judgements authored by Justice Umar Ata Bandial (81 times), Justice Maqbool Baqar (39 times), Justice Faisal Arab (seven times), Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah (54) times and Justice Yahya Afridi (13 times).

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2020