Govt asked to explain under what authority ARU conducted inquiry against Justice Isa

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan on Monday directed the federal government to explain in court whether the Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) was empowered to conduct an inquiry against a sitting judge of the apex court, reported The News. 

The results of the inquiry, later placed before President Arif Alvi, had resulted in a presidential reference filed against Justice Qazi Faez Isa back in May 2019. Justice Isa had been accused of failing to disclose assets belonging to his wife and children in his tax returns.

The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) had taken up the case, but petitions had also been filed in the top court against the reference by numerous parties, including the Pakistan Bar Council. A bench of the top court had later been constituted to conduct hearings into these petitions. 

Also read: Govt told to collect information about assets owned by Justice Isa's spouse from FBR

The bench, headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial, comprised of Justice Maqbool Baqir, Justice Manzoor Ahmed Malik, Justice Faisal Arab, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Qazi Amin Ahmed.

The hearing into the case resumed on Monday, in which the court directed the government to detail the authority under which the ARU was tasked to collect information against a judge of the top court. During the proceedings, Attorney General (AG) Anwar Mansoor Khan sought a two-week time for submitting his arguments in rebuttal of the instant matter.

Justice Bandial told the AG to inform the court as to how the presidential reference against the judge of the apex court had been made public and debated publicly when it was meant for referral to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) first. 

Also read: ARU collected information against Justice Isa without lawful authority, argues counsel

FBR report submitted to court

During the hearing, the AG also submitted to court a report of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in compliance with a previous order tasking the government to submit information about tax record of the spouse of Justice Qazi Faez Isa. 

In the report, the FBR said that the spouse of Justice Isa had visited the office of tax authority on January 27 and expressed a preference that her case be transferred from Islamabad to Karachi for which she also lodged an application. 

The FBR further submitted that Justice Isa's wife was apprised that she could file her tax declarations online under Section 114 of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 from anywhere and outside Pakistan. She had already filed her income tax declaration for T/Y 2012, 2013 and 2014 online. 

Also read: SJC quashes misconduct reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa

She was also assured that her request would be disposed of promptly as per law. The FBR afterwards recommended the case accordingly be transferred to Karachi as per her desire, with FBRs jurisdiction order No 7 (1) jurisdiction/2018-11922-R, dated January 30.

The FBR said that the jurisdiction of the case was transferred from Karachi to Islamabad along with other similar cases for administrative convenience in that her husband Justice Qazi Faez Isa’s case rested in Islamabad. 

The FBR contended that an earlier statement by the woman that she “stopped filing when she no longer had taxable income as she had stopped working on June 30, 2008, and sold the property which gave her taxable income,” is not corroborated by the facts of her case. 

Originally published in The News