The judiciary should take stock of its “rapidly declining reputation” in the world rankings, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry urged Sunday.
In a tweet, Chaudhry said the Minister for Law and Justice Forough Naseem had raised an important question: if judges were not responsible for the assets of their wives and children, then how was it possible to hold politicians and bureaucrats accountable?
The minister said that the new Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Umar Atta Bandial, would face this challenge when he will be sworn in.
The law minister, speaking in a private TV channel programme “ on Saturday, had said judges, like other government officials, were also public officer holders.
“Will district judges and administrative officers not be answerable for their family’s assets?” he asked in response to the Supreme Court’s detailed verdict issued in Justice Qazi Faez Isa’s case.
The law minister termed the SC’s decision in the review case as “wrong and contradictory”.
“If the judges of the Supreme Court are not answerable for the assets of their families, then will the same apply to other government officials? If the judges are not answerable, then why should the prime minister or I will be accountable?”
The Supreme Court SC had on Saturday had issued the detailed verdict in the Justice Qazi Faez Isa review case, saying that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) obtained the tax records of the judge and his family in an “unlawful” manner.
