CJP Isa says he quoted judgement of Justice Mansoor Shah in Mubarak Sani case and it was a mistake to do so

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team has reviewed this content and determined that it is false.

To reach this conclusion, the iVerify Pakistan team contacted Dawn.com reporter Abdullah Momand to corroborate the matter.

Multiple posts on social media platform X on August 22, 2024, claimed that Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa said during a hearing on the Mubarak Sani case that he had quoted Justice Mansoor Ali Shah’s judgement in his order and it was a mistake to do so. However, the judge said no such thing.

On February 6, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by CJP Isa, overturned the conviction of Ahmadi citizen Mubarak Sani, who had been accused under the Punjab Holy Quran (Printing and Recording) (Amendment) Act of 2019. The court noted that the alleged offence had not been criminalised until 2021, leading to the decision to set aside Sani’s conviction and order his immediate release.

However, the judgment was subsequently challenged by the Punjab government and other parties. On July 24, the Supreme Court accepted the review petitions and issued a revised order. Despite this, the Punjab government sought further amendments to the revised verdict after consulting with some clerics.

After a prolonged hearing, the Supreme Court on August 22 tried to put to rest the controversy regarding the case, expunging contentious paragraphs from its Feb 6 and July 24 decisions.

Justice Shah is the senior puisne judge of the Supreme Court and has had different opinions than the CJP on issues such as how to curb meddling in the judiciary, the reserved seats case and when to take up appeals against the aforementioned case’s verdict.

HOW IT STARTED

On August 22, a user, who appeared to be a PML-N supporter and critical of the PTI, shared a post on X following the same day’s hearing and verdict in the Mubarak Sani case.

Alongside a photo of CJP Isa, the caption of the post said: “Justice Faiz Isa annulled Justice Mansoor Shah’s decision to grant religious freedom to Qadianis in the Mubarak Sani case.”

‘Qadiani’ is a slur used against the Ahmadi community.

The caption also included the following alleged quote from CJP Isa from the hearing: “In my judgment, I had upheld the judgment of Justice Mansoor Shah, which was my mistake.”

The post was viewed 14,800 times.

The same caption was also shared by other users as can be seen here with over 8,300 views, here and here.

METHODOLOGY

A fact check was initiated due to the claim’s virality and the intense public interest in the proceedings of the Mubarak Sani case.

Contacting Dawn.com correspondent Abdullah Momand, who covers Supreme Court reporting and attended the August 22 Mubarak Sani hearing, confirmed that the chief justice did not utter the alleged remark or refer in any way to Justice Shah or his judgement from January 2022 on a case of a similar issue about an Ahmadi citizen.

The same was confirmed by Dawn reporter Nasir Iqbal who said about the alleged comment: “This is not true”.

Moreover, an investigation of major news outlets covering the August 22 hearing showed no such quote attributed to CJP Isa during the proceedings.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The claim regarding a remark from CJP Isa admitting to his mistake during the August 22, 2024, Mubarak Sani case proceedings in upholding a 2022 judgement of Justice Shah is false.

Reporters confirmed and news stories also showed that the chief justice made no mention of or to Justice Shah or his judgement during the August 22 hearing.

Evidence and References