LAHORE, June 28: Retired Justice Wajihuddin Ahmad said on Saturday that immediately after the military takeover of October 12, 1999, a full court meeting with the then Chief Justice Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui in chair was held to consider the option of taking suo motu notice of the coup but no consensus could be evolved among the SC judges.

Speaking at the launching ceremony of Pakistan Bar Council’s white paper on the working of judiciary, the former Supreme Court judge claimed that three judges attending the full court meeting favoured suo moto action (whose names were not disclosed by him saying he would do so on some other occasion) while “some” remained silent and “others” opposed it. “Before we could make a decision as to whether suo moto action should be initiated or the SC should wait for a petition to be filed against the military takeover, Justice Irshad Hassan Khan (retired) whispered something to Justice Siddiqui after which the meeting was prorogued without evolving any consensus,” he disclosed.

Mr Wajihuddin proposed that the office of the army chief should be changed into secretarial office while separate chief justices for both judicial and administrative work should be appointed in order to avoid the alleged coalition of the judiciary and the armed forces.

He criticised those judges who took oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order 1999 saying “these judges could not call themselves judges of SC or the high courts since they were administered oath under the PCO which was entirely against the spirit of the Constitution and democracy”.

He added, “I would have never lifted my head again for the rest of my life had I been on those benches which pronounced at least six verdicts with regard to the actions of former military regime”.

While referring to June 20, 2001, when Gen Pervez Musharraf succeeded Rafique Tarar as president, he quoted the latter as saying that he found it useless to move any court in the country against the holding of president’s office by Gen Musharraf after he saw the then chief justice administering presidential oath to his (Mr Tarar’s) predecessor.

Justice Wajihuddin (retired) maintained that the SC in the Zafar Ali Shah case had observed that it would test all the constitutional amendments itself made by the Gen Musharraf’s regime before they were incorporated but nothing like happened. He lamented that no condemnation resolution was passed by the Pakistan Bar Council from Jan 26, 2000 (the day when judges took oath under PCO) till April 29, 2000. “I would suggest all the bar councils and associations to pass the condemnation resolutions immediately after the taking place of such incidents since these platforms voice the opinion of public,” he proposed.

He suggested certain “improvements” in the white papers saying the PBC should also incorporate the incident relating to certain amendments made by Gen Musharraf in the oath format of judges during 2000 and the subsequent withdrawal of such amendments by him.

The SCBA president Hamid Khan said the legal fraternity had made a genuine effort to unveil the “conspiracies” taking place against the judiciary.

Mr Khan claimed that he had nothing personal against the judiciary but the latter had added the last nail in the coffin of bar-bench relationship by sealing SCBA’s offices and had left the PBC with no other option but to issue a white paper on the judiciary’s working. Former chief LHC justice Mian Allah Nawaz, PBC vice-chairman Mian Abbas, Lahore High Court Bar Association president Hafiz Abdul Rehman Ansari, PBC member Yousaf Leghari and vice-chairman of Sindh Bar Council Yasin Azad also addressed the ceremony.