Supreme
Judicial Council
By Col. Riaz Jafri
(Retd)
Westridge, Rawalpindi
The question of an Acting Chief
Justice of Pakistan (ACJP) presiding over the
Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) is being hotly
debated these days. The lawyers defending the
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in the
Presidential Reference against him say that under
article 209 of the Constitution only the Chief
Justice of Pakistan (CJP) can preside over the
SJC and there is no mention in it of any Acting
CJP doing so. As a matter of fact, whereas the
article 209 lays down the detailed procedures
for the tabling of a reference against the judges,
composition of the SJC, determining the seniority
of the judges for the SJC and so on so forth,
it is surprisingly silent on the subject of the
procedure to be adopted if a presidential reference
is tabled against the CJP himself. Ch. Aitezaz
Ahsan and his team are invoking this ‘legal
lacuna’ to their advantage and trying to
stall the proceedings. In a petition they have
questioned the composition of the SJC for its
being presided by an ACJP, apart from objecting
to two other judges to sit as its members.
I am alive to my limitations of the legal matters
of such import, but kindly allow me to ask:
Can the President under the constitution send
a reference against the CJP?
I think, Yes.
2. Can a judge hear a case against his own self?
I think, No.
3. By analogy, therefore, can the CJP preside
over the SJC to hear the reference against his
own self?
I think, No.
4. Who should then preside over the SJC?
I think the next senior most judge of the Supreme
Court of Pakistan, in the same spirit of the law
as provided in the constitution for appointing
the next senior most judge as member of the SJC
in the event of non-availability of the senior
most judge of the Supreme Court or the High Courts
of Pakistan.
If the CJP and the lawyers defending him are still
not convinced then the only course left is to
amend the article 209 of the constitution to allow
(1) to appoint an ACJP in the ‘life’
of the actual CJP, and (2) allow such ACJP to
preside over the SJC to hear the reference. But
in this case, by the time cows come home, the
roof of the home might be blown away by the winds
Islamisation of Islamabad
The clerics of Lal Masjid and the girl students
and staff of Jamia Hafsa are gradually increasing
their demands with each passing day. Starting
from a simple demand to restore a partly demolished
mosque built on an encroached CDA land, they have
in a matter of weeks escalated their demands to
a near ultimatum of ‘now or never’
imposition of the Shariat in Pakistan . The hounds
smelt the blood the moment an insipid minister
laid ceremoniously the first brick to restore
a mosque. Ever since they are digging their teeth
deeper and deeper. The Hafsa baton-wielding burqa
clad girls raided a house and took a few women
and an infant in their illegal custody. Lal Masjid
masked men had the audacity to hold a few police
officials and their van as hostages till their
workers were released. They warned the video shop
owners to close their business and in the process
raided a few shops and burnt cassettes valuing
over Rs.15 lacs in a bonfire. Women have been
warned not to drive and reportedly the registration
numbers of the vehicles driven by them are being
noted by the moral police force of Lal Masjid.
A Shariat Court of 10 Muftis has also been instituted
to try out the cases violating Shariat.
This all is being done ostensibly and shrewdly
in the name of Islam and Shariat, which no Muslim
can afford to oppose for fear of grave reprisals.
Next, they take up the plank of rooting out ‘fuhashi’
and immorality from the society which again no
one in his/her proper senses can disagree to Now
prostitution is a two way traffic. In it both
genders – male as well as female –
are involved and cannot take place without the
participation of both. However, for eliminating
it why target the women only? Why not watch and
ward the suspected houses and warn the ‘visitors’
to stop their immoral visitations? Make a list
of those frequenting such hideouts, take their
pictures entering and leaving the den and make
it public for all to know and ridicule them. The
alleged brothel houses will automatically vanish
because of starvation. Restraining 'immorality'
in society makes sense. And, for that the religious
elements (and why not all others also?) should
educate the society by word of mouth and literature
- not by physical acts and threats by the clerks
and clergy. Emphasis should be laid on 'Ikhlaqiat'
(character building) rather than on an overdose
of religiosity and that too of a specific school
of thought only.
Again, the limits for such 'immorality' must be
clearly defined, for, these can be stretched to
the 'shaving of the beard' and 'driving of a car
by a female’, depending upon the whims of
our so-called khateebs, ulema and mushaikh. A
clear-cut demarcation between healthy entertainment
and 'fuhashi' must be made. Unfortunately, the
present trend of the mullah is just to target
the women and any thing allowing them even a remote
breath of fresh air - education, sports, employment,
medical treatment by male specialists etc. is
straight away declared immoral by the so called
muftis. That is depriving more than half the population
of its due share in the nation building activities.
Who said, "Give me the educated mothers and
I will give you a good nation"? I think Napoleon
did.
Lastly, it is not for the government only not
to allow a state within a state but it is the
responsibility and duty of all its right thinking
citizens also to thwart such fissiparous designs
of all those who were from day one opposed to
the creation of a democratic, modern and forward-looking
Pakistan, and who are now bent upon achieving
their nefarious end ironically in the name of
Islamisation of Islamabad and Pakistan.
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