Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said on Sunday urged the judiciary to take stock of its rapidly declining reputation in the world rankings. In a tweet mentioned the question raised by Minister for Law and Justice Forough Naseem that 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 new Chief Justice would face this challenge when he would be sworn in.
The law minister, speaking in a private TV channel on Saturday, had said that 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 had asked in response to the Supreme Court’s detailed verdict issued in Justice Qazi Faez Isa’s case.
The law minister had 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.
