Justice Qazi Faez Isa of the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday told the apex court that he and his family were maligned by the government the world over, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

While giving arguments in his petition, seeking court’s instructions to show proceedings of hearing of his appeal against the presidential reference live, he said media personnel were themselves not safe in the country. “Journalists are taken away in Islamabad, but Prime Minister Imran Khan has only one thing to say, “What can I do,” Justice Isa regretted. 

He further said that PTV showed parliament’s session live. “This is notwithstanding the fact that there is no mention of showing session live in the constitution,” he said, and added when a programme was being aired live, there was no room for editing.    

Justice Isa said that some journalists’ knowledge of legal issues was even more than that of lawyers. 

He prayed to the court to show proceedings in his case live regardless of the fact that he wins it or loses.

He said the court should see to it what kind of treatment was being meted out to judges in this country. “My name has been tarnished, and I should be given an opportunity to clear my name,” the SC judge said. 

Justice Isa further said that even German leader Adolf Hitler was aware of the power of media. “He knew that media was more powerful than tanks,” he said, and questioned that if technology existed, then why were proceedings in his case not being shown live? 

When Justice Isa said that yesterday (on Monday) a newspaper carried a story that his petition for showing proceedings in his case live had been rejected by the Supreme Court, Justice Umar Ata Bandial corrected him by saying that the paper he had read  no such story in it. “Some newspaper may have carried a false story,” Justice Bandial surmised. 

He told Justice Qazi Faez Isa to rest assured that not everybody hearing his petition against the presidential reference was ‘biased’. 

He also made it clear to the petitioner that there were lots of difficulties in showing court’s proceedings live.

Justice Isa said that since he was not shrewd enough perhaps he could not make the bench understand his viewpoint.  

He alleged that he and his family members remained the subject of government’s ‘vilification’ campaign for two years. “This case does not pertain to me alone, but to the future generations,” the SC judge argued. 

“What would you have done if the same thing had happened to you and your families?” Justice Isa asked the bench in a voice choked with emotions. When he, in his defence, mentioned incidents of kidnapping of journalists in Islamabad, Justice Umar Ata Bandial interrupted him by saying that he should remain confined to the case.