SC puts off verdict on pleas’ maintainability: Uproar draws warning from judge
By Nasir Iqbal
ISLAMABAD, June 8: The Supreme Court on Friday put off its verdict on the maintainability of identical petitions challenging the filing of reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to let the parties complete their arguments.
A 13-member larger bench, hearing identical petitions questioning the filing of the reference against the chief justice, composition of the Supreme Judicial Council and its competence to try the chief justice, was to announce its ruling on Friday after Advocate Malik Mohammad Qayyum, defending the government in a petition of the Watan Party, concluded his rebuttal to arguments of chief justice’s counsel Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan.
The bench decided to give an opportunity to other lawyers representing the government to present their case.
The Supreme Court proceedings also saw a brief uproar on Friday forcing Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, heading the bench, to warn in an angry tone that the court could even decline to proceed with the case. “No one would be allowed to turn the court into a ‘fish market’,” Justice Ramday observed.
At the outset, Barrister Ahsan wanted to say something on the three affidavits filed on Thursday by Chief of Staff to the President Lt-Gen (retd) Hamid Javaid, Military Intelligence (MI) Director-General Maj-Gen Mian Nadeem Ijaz Ahmad and Intelligence Bureau (IB) Director-General Brig (retd) Ijaz Ahmed Shah, but lawyers representing the government side started shouting and insisted that no issue other than the maintainability should be discussed in the court.
Justice Ramday ordered the shouting lawyers to sit down or the court would retire and could even decline to hear the petitions if someone tried to vitiate the atmosphere. “We will not permit such kind of activities in the court,” the judge warned.
Justice Ramday said that after Malik Qayyum the court would not hear the army of federal government lawyers.
Despite an understanding by Malik Qayyum to conclude his arguments on Friday to give opportunity to other government lawyers to present their cases he consumed the entire day.
Before rising for the day, the bench announced that it would reassemble after 10 minutes to announce its finding, but later deferred it for Monday.
During the hearing, the luncheon controversy again cropped up when Malik Qayyum argued that it was expected of a judge not to hear cases if serious allegations were levelled against him, but objections like some judges were seen having a lunch with someone should not be raised.
The reference was to a news item regarding the controversy over a lunch by two senior judges present in the larger bench with government’s top aides directly involved in the judicial battle over the suspension of the chief justice. It is for the second time the controversy was mentioned in the court.
Barrister Ahsan explained that he had never raised such objections and said it was Malik Qayyum who repeatedly highlighted the controversy in the court.
At this, Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi addressing Malik Qayyum observed that if he wanted that he should not hear the case then he would not sit on the bench.
“I have full faith in me and think I am quite an independent judge and no body can purchase me,” Justice Abbasi observed. “You are trying to scare me but I will not be frighten,” Justice Abbasi said and asked the government counsel to read a news item appeared in an Urdu daily last week which said that Sharifuddin Pirzada was among close friends of the chief justice, yet the lawyer was appearing against the chief justice in the case.
