March 20, 2002	Wednesday	Muharram 5, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, March 19: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the federal government to produce the relevant record of the judges whose elevation to the SC has been challenged by the Supreme Court Bar Association.

The government in its statement, took the position that the judges were appointed by the president after consultation with the chief justice.

The government statement, submitted at noon, stated that the doctrine of legitimate expectancy was not attracted in the case.

“Since the appointments were made by the president fully accepting the recommendations of the chief justice of Pakistan, this petition is not maintainable,” Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, counsel for the federation stated.

Earlier, when the bench assembled for hearing of the petitions, SCBA President Hamid Khan pointed out that the government had not filed any comments about the petition.

He said he could not open his case because the official position in the matter was not made available to him and other counsels and they could not rebut or comment on it in their arguments.

Chief Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmad accepted the objections raised by the counsel for the petitioners and ordered the federation’s lawyer to file a statement on the government’s position by the “end of the day” so the hearing could be resumed on Wednesday.

Pirzada stated that since the facts were hardly controversial and the chief justice was consulted about the appointments, he did not consider it necessary to file a statement.

However, he added that the record of the appointments could be called for presentation to the judges for examination.

The SC bench comprised Chief Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmad, Justice Qazi Mohammad Farooq, Justice Mian Mohammad Ajmal, Justice Syed Deedar Hussain Shah and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar.