ISLAMABAD, Dec 30: Balochistan High Court Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa will be heading a second judicial commission in a year or so and many in the country’s legal circles hope its report fares better than the one he prepared on another case.

Justice Isa was appointed head of the judicial commission that the Supreme Court set up on Friday to investigate the memo scandal.

Last year in October, the government constituted a three-member commission to probe a press report about an alleged plot to kill the then chief justice of the Lahore High Court, Khawaja Sharif. Besides Justice Isa, Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman, then a judge of the LHC, and Justice Imtiaz Ali of the Peshawar High Court, were members of that commission.

Whether it is a coincidence or deliberate, two members of that government-appointed commission were chosen by the Supreme Court to investigate the high-profile memo scandal.

Apart from Justice Isa, the new commission will include Justice Hameed, who is now Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court, and Sindh High Court Chief Justice Musheer Alam.

Last year, a media report attributed to the special branch of Punjab police alleged that a plot had been hatched by some top federal government figures to assassinate the then LHC chief justice. The report talked about three federal ministers without identifying them.

Soon after the publication of the report, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry convened a meeting and called top officials from the Punjab government and the federal interior ministry to address the issue of judges’ security.

He asked the federal government to investigate the report at the highest level.

The government constituted the three-member commission to look into the facts of the case and make efforts to determine its authenticity.

When contacted, Supreme Court Registrar Dr Faqir Hussain said the meeting had been held at the apex court but the inquiry commission had been constituted by the government. Therefore, he said, it was for the government to decide whether to make the report public.

In reply to a question, the registrar said he was unaware of any latest development in this regard.

Despite attempts, Interior Secretary Khawaja Siddique Akbar, who is also in possession of the inquiry report, couldn’t be contacted.

The commission reportedly completed its report in December last year and submitted it to all stakeholders. A copy was also shared with the Supreme Court in January.

However, neither the federal government nor the Punjab government took any action in view of the findings of the report.

According to an official, the commission had recommended severe penalties on then top Punjab officials who it held responsible for creating and releasing the false story to the media.