October 03, 2007	Wednesday	Ramazan 20, 1428

QUETTA, Oct 2: Presidential candidate Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed has said that important questions have been raised in the constitutional petition filed in the Supreme Court challenging the re-election bid of a uniformed president from assemblies whose tenure is due to end on Nov 15.

Addressing members of the Balochistan Bar Association and Balochistan High Court Bar Association here on Tuesday, he said a judge was prisoner of his conscience in providing justice to petitioners, but weak judges and judgments based on expediency were the root causes of promotion of injustice in the society.

He said that judgments since the Maulvi Tamizuddin case verdict till the Supreme Court’s order of Sept 28, 2007, were based on polarity as some judges provided justice and others had the tendency to accommodate the government.

He said that once a verdict was announced it went into the public domain and constructive criticism on it was a right of the people.

He claimed that governments, in collaboration with judges, had quite often succeeded in obtaining favours from courts in the past.

He said former chief justice Anwarul Haq, without the consent of other bench members, had added a few words to empower Gen Ziaul Haq to amend the constitution, changing the context of the judgment in the Nusrat Bhutto case and, similarly, it was a historical, legal and judicial fact that former chief justice Irshad Ahmed Khan had copied the words of Justice Anwarul Haq to empower President Pervez Musharraf to amend the constitution.

Justice Wajih said three judges of the Supreme Court in the verdict of Sept 28 provided relief to the petitioners but the six others on the bench dismissed the petitions as not maintainable without giving any reason, despite the fact that the hearing continued for two weeks. He said some judgments harmed the judiciary.

He said he had filed a petition in the Supreme Court and the points raised in it included the acceptance of Gen Musharraf’s nomination papers by the Election Commission and the election of the president for another term by the current assemblies. He said he had prayed to the court to stay the process of presidential election till the disposal of the petition.

He said the assemblies would complete their tenure on Nov 15 and they had lost credibility after the resignation of a large number of members of the National and provincial assemblies.

He said the assemblies which had only five weeks left could not legally and morally elect the president for another five-year term.

He said the ultimate aim of the lawyers’ community in nominating him a presidential candidate was to implement in letter and spirit the speech of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah of Aug 11, 1947, of making Pakistan a democratic state. He said no right guaranteed in Article 15 of the Constitution could be surrendered, he said.

Earlier, Shakeel Ahmed Hadi and Baz Mohammad Kakar, presidents of the BHCBA and the BBA, respectively, announced that the lawyers’ struggle would continue till the goals of restoration of civilian rule, independence of judiciary and freedom of the press were achieved.