Justice Qazi Faez Isa’s wife, Sarina Isa, alleged on Tuesday that the Supreme Court did not set the same standards for her as it did for Prime Minister Imran Khan, thereby violating her right to a fair trial under Article 19 of the Constitution.
The judge’s wife was presenting arguments before a 10-member full bench of the country’s top court, which is hearing a review petition filed by Justice Isa against a smaller bench’s ruling on the presidential reference brought against him.
The proceedings were at times terse, at other times emotional as arguments over the constitutionality and legality of the Supreme Court’s order vacating a presidential ordinance against Justice Isa was debated.
At the onset of the hearing, Justice Maqbool Baqar requested Sarina to make her arguments as brief as possible.
The idea was supported by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, who asked Justice Isa’s wife to tell the bench what was wrong with the Supreme Courts’ verdict given in the case on June 20, 2020.
Sarina started her arguments by telling the court that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) did not share with her a the “confidential report” it had sent to the Supreme Judicial Council, despite the bench’s order a day earlier to do so.
“My tax matters are deeply personal. Even my husband is not privy to them. The FBR report on my personal tax matters has now been read by all the judges. It is illegal of the FBR to submit a report on my tax matters without my knowledge,” she argued.
“For two years, my life has been a subject for talk shows. My private life was made public by Fawad Chaudhry, Shahzad Akbar, Firdous Ashiq Awan and TV channels,” she complained to the bench.
“A newspaper published half-truths based on parts of the report that were leaked to it illegally,” she alleged.
She added that she had been “killed a thousand times” and urged the bench to not let her go through the pain again.
“My husband was not summoned by the FBR, neither did the Supreme Judicial Council summon me. The FBR’s chairman’s decision to submit the report [in that scenario] is illegal,” she argued.
However, Justice Munib Akhtar remarked that a “confidential report” cannot be submitted to an individual based on an application alone.
At this, Sarina informed the bench that she had not asked for the report to be shared with her, it was the bench itself which asked that it be done so.
“The Supreme Court’s decision to send me to the FBR was not correct. On June 18, 2020, I submitted my tax details, transfer of funds and all details to the court,” she argued.
“The court, while issuing the verdict, did not look at my documents correctly,” the judge’s wife said.
