KARACHI, Feb 28: Supreme Court Bar Association President Aitzaz Ahsan on Thursday rejected the notion that a two-thirds majority of parliament was required for the reinstatement of the deposed judges. He said they were still judges as they had illegally been prevented from attending courts and performing their duties, adding that the hurdles in their way could be removed by verbal orders of the interior minister.
He said no law allowed anyone to amend the constitution, dismiss 60 judges and arrest them with their families. “The Chief Justice and his child have remained in detention under Pervez Musharraf’s orders for four months. The issue, therefore, is not merely of constitutionality, but one of criminality. There can be no validation of such actions since they were done by illegal orders,” he added.
Mr Ahsan was addressing the general body meeting of the Karachi Bar Association held in the Shuhada-i-Punjab Hall of the City Courts through telephone from Lahore.
“If this view is unacceptable, it will imply that in future any military commander can suspend the constitution for one day, amend it, abolish the fundamental rights, arrest the judges, parliamentarians and editors, and the next day he may claim that he had validly amended the constitution. That cannot be acceptable,” he said.
Long-march call
Explaining the reasons for withdrawing the long-march call, the SCBA chief said the March 9 deadline had been extended to give time to the political parities and new parliament to fulfill demands of the legal fraternity. The lawyers’ ongoing struggle for the restoration of the deposed judges, independence of the judiciary, the rule of law and supremacy of the constitution was launched after March 9, 2007 when Pervez Musharraf sent a reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. In order to condemn the March 9 act and express solidarity with the deposed chief justice and other judges, the lawyers community would hold rallies across the country. The rallies would be addressed by deposed judges, including the chief justice, and lawyers from March 10 to 16.
He said there was no precedent of such steps as were taken by President Musharraf on Nov 3, through which the judges were not only deposed but also detained. He added that judges could only be removed from their offices under Article 209 of the Constitution. He said an independent judiciary was essential for a democratic society.
Commenting on a decision of the Supreme Court to validate the promulgation of the PCO, Aitzaz Ahsan said: “PCO judges’ decision on the Nov 3 steps has no credibility since these judges were the major beneficiaries of the steps.”
The basic issue of the county was the role of the judiciary that had been giving legal cover to military and civil dictators since the creation of Pakistan and March 9, 2007, when a military dictator with his spymasters forced the chief justice to resign, he said and added that the refusal of the Chief Justice to comply with illegal orders had set a precedent for next generations that they must never surrender to the generals.
Former president of the Karachi Bar Association Mohammad Ali Abbasi said: “When the legal fraternity had started its struggle after March 9, our first slogan was ‘Go Musharraf, go’ and now the people, too, have rejected the pro-Musharraf political forces in the Feb 18 general election, giving a clear message to the president to step down.”
Sardar Hayat, Nehal Hashmi and Naheed Afzal also spoke at the meeting. KBA secretary-general Naeem Qureshi announced that Ms Bushra Aitzaz would address the general body meeting on March 13.
Court boycott
Legal proceedings remained suspended at the City Courts and the District Courts of Malir on Tuesday as the lawyers stayed away from court proceedings in response to a strike call given by the Pakistan Bar Council to protest against the removal of the judges, detention of top leaders of the PBC, amendments made in the constitution and in the Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Act, 1973 and detention of the deposed judges, including Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.
About 311 undertrial prisoners were brought to the City Courts from different prisons of the city, but most of them were taken back to their respective prisons without being produced in court due to the lawyers’ strike. However, the judges remained in the chambers.
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