April 26, 2007	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 08, 1428

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

ISLAMABAD, April 25: Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry has alleged in the petition he filed before the Supreme Court that he was physically restrained to prevent him from leaving the President’s Camp Office Rawalpindi till 5pm on the day he was suspended and a reference filed before the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).

"When it became evident that he could not be persuaded to resign then by an order of the same date (March 9, 2007) the referring authority (the president) purportedly restrained the petition from performing the functions of judge of the Supreme Court and Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP)."The officials of the referring authority thereupon also placed physical restraints on the petitioner preventing him from leaving his office till 5pm," the 40-page petition drafted by senior counsel Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan said.

The referring authority, the petition said, summoned the petitioner and in the presence of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and others, whose names would be disclosed at a later and appropriate stage through an affidavit, referred to baseless charges as had already been published from a letter written by an advocate (Naeem Bukhari)."And (they) gave the petitioner the option and indeed fervently persuaded him to resign from the office of the CJP. All manner of offers were also made," the petition said.

"It may be mentioned that the referring authority has publicly admitted that he suggested that the petitioner should resign," the petition said, adding: "The president was most upset when the petitioner refused to resign."

All these harassment and insult continued against the petitioner while those who might have played any illegal role in the commission of the alleged acts attributed to the petitioner in the reference were at liberty, serving in their jobs and facing no disciplinary inquiry or suspension.

Referring to the reference, the petition alleged, it was an attempt by the referring authority to humble, humiliate, subjugate and thus render the judicial organ of the state completely subservient, especially at a time when the organ was just beginning to assert its constitutional authority by giving relief to the common man.

The prime minister on whose advice the reference was filed, the petition said, was himself found, in a judgment (Pakistan Steel Mills privatisation case) authored by the petitioner, to have been engaged in some serious omissions and commissions.

The prime minister even faced no-confidence motion in the National Assembly on the basis of that judgment while the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) failed to take any action against the prime minister on such serious findings of wrongdoings amounting to billions of rupees, the petition said.

"How can a reference that has been filed on the advice of such a prime minister to seek removal of the author of that judgment be seen otherwise than mala fide, especially when an application seeking review of that judgment is pending before this court," the petition said.

Holding this petition incompetent or not deserving relief, the petition cautioned, would amount to judicial suicide. In that case, this court will have to accept that each one of its judges, as well as judges of the high courts, are subject, at the whim and fancy of the executive, to a reference coupled with simultaneous suspension, it said.

"And this country has indeed seen many a whimsical and arbitrary military head turning in wrath towards independent judges and seeking to subordinate and overawe the judiciary, sometimes to turn around the course of pending proceedings or impending judgments," it said.

“The entire edifice of the independence of the judiciary would crumble like a house of cards, if contrary view is taken, as any judge about to deliver a judgment against the executive, will run the jeopardy of being effectively and summarily sent home. This has indeed happened in the past in this country in times when the constitution stood abrogated or had been suspended or held in abeyance.

"If contrary view is taken which judge will then stand up to the executive?"

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)