Islamabad: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial has approved the federal government’s petition seeking withdrawal of the curative review filed by the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government against senior puisne judge Qazi Faiz Isa.
CJP Bandyal had earlier in April this year reserved judgment on the federal government’s plea.
As per the judgment announced today (Friday), the CJP disposed of the petition on withdrawal grounds.
The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)-led government had requested the apex court to withdraw the curative review petition filed against Justice Isa.
President Dr. Arif Alvi through Article 48 of the Constitution had approved the withdrawal of the curative review petition and civil miscellaneous application against Justice Isa on the advice of PM Shehbaz.
President Alvi had also signed his Power of Attorney in favor of the Advocate-on-Record (AOR).
In 2021, the then government of Imran Khan filed a curative review petition against Justice Isa’s majority order in review petitions passed on April 26, 2021.
However, the registrar of the Supreme Court immediately returned the petition after objecting to it, saying that once the review petition is decided, it cannot be reviewed.
The current Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government, terming it as an act of state-led vendetta by the former PTI-led regime, said it wants to withdraw the appeal filed against the decision of the country’s top court.
Seeking to withdraw the matter considering the requirements of justice after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced the government’s decision to quash the review against Justice Isa, the petition said, “the government does not want to pursue the matter.”
The Prime Minister wrote in his tweet, “On my instructions, the government has decided to withdraw the curative review petition against the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Qazi Faiz Isa.”
Prime Minister Shehbaz said the curative review was based on the malice of “harassing and intimidating” his predecessor, Judge Isa. [Imran Khan] “Demand”.
