ISLAMABAD, Aug 28(ABC): Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shireen Mazari said that the case against Justice Qazi Faez Isa was made by Farogh Naseem. She said Chairman PTI Imran Khan was misled about the reference against Justice Isa.
The MQM-P’s Naseem was a federal law minister in the PTI’s government. He resigned from the office as federal minister to plead the case against the Supreme Court judge in June 2020.
Blaming the then law minister Farogh Naseem for filing the reference, the former human rights minister said it was Naseem who caused the most damage to the PTI government.
The PTI government was damaged by cases filed by Farogh Naseem against Justice Faiz Isa, she said while speaking to a private news channel on Saturday.
Mazari also said giving a go-ahead to the name of the current chief election commissioner was a big mistake.
The PTI minister also recounted her personal experience, saying Naseem had lodged a complaint in connection with the enforced disappearance bill against her at the Aabpara police station.
It was a mistake
In a mid-April meeting with the Insaf Lawyers Forum (ILF), Imran Khan admitted that the filing of the presidential reference against Justice Isa was a “mistake.” He said that the then-law minister had briefed him on Justice Isa’s properties and assets.
The party’s lawyers asked him if it was an incorrect decision to file a presidential reference against Justice Isa. The PTI chairperson agreed and called it a mistake, sources privy to the meeting said.
On April 18, Naseem said that Imran Khan had insisted on filing the presidential reference against Justice Isa. “The summary against Justice Faez Isa was a sensitive matter and every aspect of the case was scrutinised […] I had no personal conflict with Justice Isa,” Naseem said in a statement issued to Geo News programme “Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath.”
He said the ex-prime minister had insisted on filing the reference against Justice Isa based on the findings of the Assets Recovery Unit (ARU) — which was headed by then-advisor to the prime minister on accountability Shahzad Akbar.