Isa says he's fighting for future of judiciary.

Byline: Nasir Iqbal

ISLAMABAD -- Justice Qazi Faez Isa of the Supreme Court on Tuesday insisted that he was fighting for the future of Pakistan as well as the institution of the judiciary.

'We are living in a gutter contrary to what the founding father Quaid-i-Azam had envisioned, but they say as if I will be dusted out at some appropriate juncture,' Justice Isa argued in a high-pitched tone while appearing for the third time before a 10-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial.

At the outset of the hearing on a set of review petitions, Justice Bandial said the court was allowing the petitioner judge to argue the case because his counsel Muneer A. Malik had expressed his inability to appear before the court because of his health.

Justice Isa, whose voice became choked at some point of time, regretted that for the past two years there had been a propaganda campaign by the government-controlled media not only against him but also against his family.

'Please put yourself in my shoes,' he said, adding that though his children and wife were not his dependent, they had been stigmatised. 'How would you feel if your wife and children are treated in the same fashion,' he said and requested the court to give him some latitude.

'I apologise if you are getting bored,' Justice Isa said when Justice Bandial told him that the cases he was citing pertained to the hearing in open court which 'we are already doing' and suggested that he should argue the application he had filed for live telecast of the court proceedings.

'Why are we reluctant? Because we belong to the same institution and for the sake of the integrity and solidarity we must refrain from making comments. Already Allah Almighty has rewarded you since despite odds, a huge number of people are in your favour,' Justice Bandial observed.

'We are not happy to see our sister and daughter sitting in the courtroom,' he said while pointing towards Justice Isa's wife Sarina and daughter Sehar.

Justice Isa contended that renowned journalists were being picked up with impunity while other journalists were beaten up and stabbed, but Prime Minister Imran Khan said he had no information and nobody moved any petition in this regard. 'Shame on the government of Pakistan; we have put the future of this country at stake,' he regretted.

Referring to the dismemberment of East Pakistan...