News
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
CJP against letting PCO judges off the hook* Justice Chaudhry says any leniency shown in the matter would mean validating all acts of Pervez Musharraf
* Court reserves judgement in intra-court appeals of deseated judges of superior courts
By Hasnaat Malik
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its judgement on the intra-court appeals filed by unseated PCO judges of superior courts against its decision of February 2 of framing contempt proceedings against them.
“Neglecting the judges having taken oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) would mean returning back to the ‘doctrine of necessity’. And if the PCO oath is not taken seriously, then God forbid, the situation might arise again when our judges would have to take such oath. We shall not compromise on the situation,” remarked Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as the six-judge bench, comprising the CJP, Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice Tassaduq Husain Jillani, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Justice Amir Hani Muslim, resumed the hearing of PCO judges’ intra-court appeals.
Justice Chaudhry said the PCO, under which, many of the bench members and he himself had taken the oath, was ratified by parliament, but, in this case, the incumbent parliament did not validate the PCO of November 3, 2007.
“It is the first parliament which did not validate any unconstitutional act. It will also never support martial law, as it is a ‘pure’ parliament,” he observed.
How could the court ignore a matter which was not ignored by parliament, the CJP questioned and asserted, ignoring the oath taking of PCO judges would be tantamount to granting recognition to the ‘doctrine of necessity’. During the proceedings, Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Maulvi Anwarul Haq, on behalf of the federation, submitted a reply before the court about the position of PCO judges. However, the CJP observed that the question raised by the court regarding the legal status of PCO judges remained unanswered.
The AGP informed the court that the judges could only be removed under Article 209 of the constitution.
The CJP was of the view that any leniency shown towards the matter would mean validating all the acts of former president Pervez Musharraf.
Raza Kazim, counsel for PCO judge Hamid Ali Shah, said that “the government has endorsed his stance in its reply that action against the judges could be taken only under Article 209 of the constitution”.
He prayed to the court to see whether the PCO judges violated the letter or the spirit of the court’s restraining order of November 3, 2007.
Upon this, Justice Osmany said, “Those judges who had taken oath on November 3, 2007, had violated the letter and those who had taken oath afterwards had violated the spirit of the order.”
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk