ISLAMABAD, Nov 27: Detractors of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry are getting ready for a fresh onslaught against him at a time when he is in the twilight of his successful career.

The chief justice will reach superannuation on Dec 11. The Sindh High Court Bar has cancelled its Nov 28 farewell dinner in honour of the chief justice because of Tuesday’s incident in which Islamabad police thrashed lawyers to quell their protest outside the Supreme Court. The Multan High Court Bar is giving second thoughts to its feast planned for Nov 29.

The protesting lawyers from Sahiwal, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Faisalabad and D.G. Khan were calling for setting up of benches of the Lahore High Court in divisional headquarters.

“I have cancelled the farewell dinner because of the Islamabad incident while the Lahore High Court Bar did not even organise it,” Sindh High Court Bar President Mustafa Lakharni said while talking to Dawn on Wednesday.

Supreme Court Bar Association President Kamran Murtaza and Pakistan Bar Council Vice Chairman Syed Qalbe Hassan called for immediate resignation of the SC registrar for what they called mishandling the situation. They said lawyers’ bodies had not yet decided on hosting farewell dinners.

“Police could not have dared to resort to such brutal action without the permission of the registrar,” Mr Murtaza alleged.

And as if this were not enough, the Federal Ombudsman for the protection of women against harassment, Yasmin Abbasey, disclosed at a press conference on Wednesday that she had filed a reference with President Mamnoon Hussain.

The reference called for invoking jurisdiction of the Supreme Judicial Council under Article 209 of the Constitution against the chief justice and six other judges who had issued a restraining order on Nov 3, 2007, asking the armed forces and government officials against implementing the emergency rule of then president Gen Pervez Musharraf and barring the judges from taking oath under the PCO.

Other judges named as respondents in the reference are: retired Justice Rana Bhagwandas, retired Justice Javed Iqbal, retired Justice Shakirullah Jan, retired Justice Raja Fayaz Ahmed, Justice Nasirul Mulk and retired Justice Ghulam Rabbani.

Yasmin Abbasey, who has served as a Sindh High Court judge and law secretary, alleged that the existence of the Nov 3, 2007, restraining order was highly doubtful and seemed to be a product of some later date. Even the signature of one of the judges was post-dated. The order was still not in the official record of the SHC because it was never faxed to its registrar as claimed in the order, she added.

Ms Abbasey herself was the subject of an inquiry by a two-member committee which held her responsible for the missing record and documents relating to $60 million graft cases revived by the Swiss authorities against former president Asif Ali Zardari.

She denied her involvement at the news conference.

A source suggested that the press conference was perhaps an attempt to pre-empt a similar reference by the law ministry against her on the findings of the probe committee.

Ms Abbasey informed the president that the evidence she had annexed with the reference clearly brought out a case of gross misconduct and extreme form of corruption as stipulated in Article 209.

She requested the president to order withholding of all service and pension benefits of the respondent judges. Otherwise, she said, the purpose of filing of the reference would frustrate.

This is the second reference against the chief justice. The previous one, filed by Lahore High Court Bar Association President Abid Saqi last month, included Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja, Justice Khilji Arif and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed of the apex court.

Ms Abbasey recalled that the chief justice had also taken oath under the PCO in 2000 and till the validation under 17th Amendment, he was allegedly working unconstitutionally in view of the apex court’s own July 31, 2009, judgment of holding the Nov 3 emergency unconstitutional.

The claim by the apex court that their status as judges was again validated in the 18th Amendment whereas those 100 judges sent home under the July 31, 2009 verdict were ignored was illogical, she said.

She explained that when the acts of Oct 12, 1999, along with the Legal Framework Order 2000 by 18th Amendment were declared illegal, including the declaration made by the apex court in the 2000 Zafar Ali Shah case of validating Gen Musharraf’s first coup, it became necessary to again validate the PCO oath of 2000 in the 18th Amendment. Otherwise, she added, all the judges presently sitting in the apex court and high courts would have gone home.

She also recalled that July 31 verdict had declared all acts taken by Gen Musharraf under the 17th Amendment as unconstitutional, but a part of the amendment protecting the PCO oath of the present apex court judges was saved.

Meanwhile, renowned rights activist Asma Jehangir condemned Tuesday’s incident and said police could not have thrashed the lawyers without first getting instructions from someone. The SC registrar should have resigned by now, she said.

Advocate Chaudhry Faisal Hussain said the matter could have been handled by assuring the lawyers that their demand would reach the chief justice.