January 26, 2003	Sunday	Ziqa’ad 22,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 25: Pakistan Bar Council members Rasheed A. Razvi, Abdul Rahim Kazi, Abdul Haleem Pirzada, Abdul Inam and Mohammad Yousuf Leghari have expressed concern at reports of planned removal of some judges by not inviting them to take fresh oath that is proposed to be administered.

In a statement, they strongly condemned such a move and stated that it would further erode the confidence of the people and the bar in the independence and credibility of the superior judiciary.

No government, they said, was competent to remove any judge of the superior courts without a decision of the Supreme Judicial Council.

Any selective administering of fresh oath would be in contravention of the judgment in Zafar Ali Shah case, where it had been declared by the Supreme Court that judges of the superior courts could not be removed without the procedure laid down in Article 209 of the Constitution, they said.