News
Thursday, May 16, 2013
AGP refuses to step down unless orderedBy Hasnaat Malik
ISLAMABAD: Since the announcement of election results, many Pakistan People’s Party stalwarts, including the Punjab governor and Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Sherry Rehman, have resigned, but Attorney General of Pakistan Irfan Qadir is not ready to resign and wants to continue until the president tells him to do so.
Talking to the media in his office at the Supreme Court building on Wednesday, Qadir said: “I have never thought of resigning from my position but if my appointing authority (the president) would ask me to leave, then I shall resign.”
Article 100 (2) says, “The attorney general shall hold office during the pleasure of the president.”
The sub-clause (4) of the same article states, “The attorney general may, by writing under his hand addressed to the president, resign his office.”
The AGP said that July 31, 2009 judgement, in which a 14-member bench of the Supreme Court had declared former president Pervez Musharraf usurper, was a “bad verdict”, as more than 100 judges of the higher judiciary were sent packing through this judgement without following the procedure, described in Article 209 of the constitution.
Qadir further contended that November 3, 2007 was not an act of high treason but a deviation from the constitution.
He stated that in the past, the courts had been validating military interventions; therefore, judges should show restraint in Musharraf’s case, as on the November 3, the constitution was held in abeyance only for one month, while other institutions were intact and continued to function.
The attorney general said that after the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and the other SC judges, there were a number of judgements, including NRO nullification and PM Yousaf Gilani’s disqualification, were inconsistent with the constitution. He expected that the chief justice would remove the inconsistencies before his retirement. “We expect that the CJP will remove the perception of partiality in the superior courts before his retirement,” he added.
He further said that parliament through legislation could also remove the discrepancies, as the courts had not right to encroach upon other institutions’ power.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk