ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan has admitted that the filing of a presidential reference for the removal of Supreme Court’s Justice Qazi Faez Isa was a mistake.
The former premier accepted his “mistake” during a meeting with the Insaf Lawyers Forum (ILF) members on Tuesday.
Several participants of the meeting have confirmed that Imran Khan admitted that the filing of a presidential reference against Justice Isa was a mistake as the then relevant officials had misguided his government about the facts of the case.
Khan was not interested in pursuing the reference against the SC judge for the last couple of years. It has been learnt that the former attorney general for Pakistan Khalid Jawed Khan had convinced him that Justice Isa was an honest judge and he was misled in this case.
A senior PTI lawyer said that Imran believed that one section within the superior judiciary was annoyed with the party because of the filing of the reference against Justice Isa.
“Even though the architect of that reference was someone else,” the lawyer added.
However, senior lawyers say that Imran, being the chief executive of the country, could not be absolved as the reference was filed on his instructions.
Separately, PTI Secretary Asad Umar has also announced that a petition would be filed in the Islamabad High Court challenging the harassment of the party’s social media activists on Thursday (today).
