What happened
On Thursday the Supreme Court ruled that Justice Qazi Faez Isa should not hear cases involving Prime Minister Imran Khan as he has filed a petition against the premier in his personal capacity
What you need to know
A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by the CJP and including Justice Mushir Alam, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Qazi Faez Isa, and Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan settled a case related to a news report citing him as announcing the allocation of Rs500 million to all lawmakers ahead of the Senate polls. “In these circumstances, it would not be appropriate for the judge to hear the matter taking into account that he has already filed a petition against the Prime Minister of Pakistan, in his personal capacity,” says the written order issued by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed.
What else
The court took into account that (Qazi Faez Isa, J.) sought to place on record photocopies of certain documents reportedly received by him from some anonymous source through a WhatsApp message. The copies of ‘those’ documents were handed over by the judge to other members of the bench. A copy was also handed over to the learned Attorney General for Pakistan. The judge (Qazi Faez Isa, J) also stated that he was unsure if the documents were genuine.
Earlier
Previously, the Supreme Court settled the case, declaring PM Imran Khan’s response satisfactory in the release of the development fund. During the hearing, Justice Qazi Faez Isa had investigated if it was the Prime Minister’s job to distribute envelopes of money to members of the National Assembly.