ISLAMABAD, June 20: Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, heading a 13-member larger bench hearing a reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, on Wednesday observed that nobody could manipulate the court to seek judgment of his liking.

“If we have faith to decide and do justice with the president, we also have the faith to do justice with the chief justice,” Justice Ramday observed.

The observation came when Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, counsel for the chief justice, said in response to some remarks that the CJ would have never tried to manipulate and forestall justice, had he not been suspended, by forming a bench of his own choice to decide the reference against him.

Barrister Ahsan read out some excerpts from President Musharraf’s book “In the Line of Fire” to establish that the Constitution provided security to constitutional appointments as demonstrated in a coup by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif against the army and a counter-coup by the army against the former premier which had been validated by the Supreme Court.

Barrister Ahsan referred to a statement in the book in which President Musharraf said he was not Gen Jehangir Karamat, who was removed by Nawaz Sharif through an executive order, and said: “All that happened on March 9, it was somebody else who said he was not Jehangir Karamat.”

Addressing the bench, he insisted that going by what President Musharraf said it was “now the duty of the court to stand up and protect their chief”. Barrister Ahsan said the president or the Supreme Judicial Council had no inherent power to restrain any judge from discharging his judicial functions.

No judge could be removed or suspended through an executive order as restraining a judge amounted to removal and his post fell vacant that had happened in the case of the chief justice, he argued.

At this, Justice Mohammad Faqir Khokhar asked how could suspension be considered removal when no vacancy had occurred in the present case.

“Vacancy does exist as the Acting Chief Justice is appointed in place of the CJ,” observed Justice Ramday, adding: “What else is a removal if the judge is asked to enjoy his salary but not to exercise his judicial powers.”

“What else the judge who had been suspended should do other than addressing the bar,” Barrister Ahsan said, adding that the bar was a strength of judges which would protect them in case a reference was moved against any judge like the CJ in an unholy manner.

At this, Justice Ramday said in a lighter vein that the CJ had honoured Barrister Ahsan for two of his talents -- a good lawyer and a good driver (an obvious mention to his driving skills during CJ’s visits to different bar associations).

Barrister Ahsan said that now he was driving only the car of the chief justice, but if the arguments of senior counsel Sharifuddin Pirzada, representing the president, were accepted he feared he would have to drive a bus filled with judges.

“You should order for the bus as more the merrier,” Justice Ramday said.

Barrister Ahsan argued that independence of judiciary depended on the security of tenure of judges like other constitutional postings like the Chief Election Commissioner and Auditor General of Pakistan who could only be removed through the process of removal of a judge under article 209.

He said under the Constitution not only the executive but also the judiciary could not decide to restrain a judge from performing his functions and suggested that the CJ could work on a desirable solution of the situation in consultation with the peers as no powers had been given to anyone to restrain a judge.