PM Sharif orders withdrawal of review petitions against senior SC judge

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday announced that his government will withdraw a case against a Supreme Court judge as differences among the judges of the superior judiciary sharpened over the issue of taking cognizance of political cases.

Justice Qazi Faez Isa, who is the senior-most judge after the Chief Justice, has been facing challenges since the government of Imran Khan filed a case, called reference, against him in May 2019 for allegedly not disclosing assets owned by his family in London.

The prime minister tweeted that he had directed Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar to withdraw the curative review reference filed against Justice Qazi Isa, observing that the action was taken by the previous government on "flimsy" and "baseless" grounds.

"On my direction, the government has decided to withdraw the Curative Review Petition against the senior-most Judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Qazi Faez Isa. The Curative Review was based on ill-will & meant to harass &