The Unfortunate Episode
By Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)
Westridge, Rawalpindi

While the legal Goliaths are wresting with the ‘to be or not to be’, please allow this commoner to pick up the gauntlet according to his common sense and ask the following questions, which if answered honestly could put the whole unfortunate episode in its correct perspective. I call it an unfortunate episode because nothing could be darker on the horizon of a country’s judiciary than bringing its Chief Justice to justice:
1. Can the President under the constitution and on advice from the PM send a Reference to the Supreme Judicial Council against the Chief Justice of Pakistan ?
The answer is Yes.
2. Who normally presides over the SJC?
The answer is the CJP.
3. Can the CJP (Justice Iftikhar Ch.) against whom the reference has been sent preside over the proceedings of the SJC?
The answer is No.
4. Can the CJ against whom the reference has been sent to the SJC sit on any other case of the SC during the period under which his reference is being heard by the SJC?
The answer is No.
5. Does that not amount to his being technically 'ineffective' as the CJ, though he is still the CJ of Pakistan ?
The answer is Yes. He is unable to perform his duties.
6. Who will preside the SJC in his absence?
The answer is, Next AVAILABLE senior judge of the SC.
7. Could the next senior judge be appointed as an ACTING Chief Justice of Pakistan when the actual CJP is UNABLE to perform his duties?
The answer is Yes.
8. Who is the competent authority under the constitution to appoint such an Acting CJ?
The answer is The President of Pakistan.
That's what the President of Pakistan did. What is so unconstitutional about it? Had it been unconstitutional in any way, would Justice Javed Iqbal not have refused to take the oath of the Acting Chief Justice of Pakistan? Pardon my saying so, does the person ascending to the highest pedestal of judiciary in the country not know what is constitutional and what is not constitutional?
Then, again, has the President taken any action against the CJ? No, he has just sent the reference to the SJC to look into the allegations levelled against the CJ by 'any source' - as the constitution says, and send its findings and recommendations to him. It will be only then that if the SJC finds the CJ guilty of misconduct and recommends him to be removed from the office that the President ‘may’ remove him from the office. I think referring the matter to the SJC is to uphold the sanctity of the judiciary in the country rather than destroying it, as some of the pseudo intellectuals would want to believe.
Now regarding harping on the 'Summoning' of the CJ by the President, and someone trying childishly to bring in the Balochistan factor etc. I think it is unfortunately most unbecoming of the so-called politico-legal brains who think they could make Musharraf bite a hot potato by their such antics.

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Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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