KARACHI: Pakistan’s Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa said on Thursday that no high court judge has reported any interference from other institutions in the judicial process during his tenure.
Speaking at the Sindh High Court Bar Association, the Chief Justice said that while there were mentions of support from the SHCBA to six judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) who had written to him, he had not received any direct complaints during his time as Chief Justice.
“Now, if there has been any interference in their work it has not been reported to me and all the incidents that were mentioned were before my watch… before I took the oath as the CJP.
“So, this is a thing to bear in mind that interference is not acceptable but at the same time nothing has been reported to me during … my watch.”
“We are writing to seek guidance from the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) with regard to the duty of a judge to report and respond to actions on [the] part of members of the executive, that seek to interfere with [the] discharge of his/her official functions and qualify as intimidation, as well as the duty to report any such actions that come to his/her attention in relation to colleagues and/or members of the courts that the high court supervises,” read the latter.
Last month, six IHC judges raised concerns about interference from executives in court affairs and sought guidance from the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).
The Supreme Court then initiated suo motu proceedings on the matter, seeking proposals from various legal bodies and the government to address such issues.
In response, the IHC held a full court meeting chaired by Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, where it was unanimously agreed to formulate an “institutional response” to any external interference in judicial matters.
