February 16, 2008	Saturday	Safar 08, 1429

LAHORE, Feb 15: Former law minister and attorney-general Syed Iqbal Haider has expressed surprise over the way the Supreme Court issued its judgment in favour of the Nov 3 emergency rule on Thursday and disposed of a review petition against it the next day although the matter was not of urgent nature.

In a statement on Friday, he said the review petitions had been filed by people with dubious credentials who belonged to Gen Musharraf’s camp.

He said Friday was the last working day before the elections and the judges hurriedly completed all proceedings, possibly because they thought that after the polls they would not be there to give their judgment.

He said even the petitioners’ counsel had requested for an adjournment for preparation because they were informed by the SC only the night before that their case was fixed before a 16-meber bench for Friday. He said by disposing of the review petition, the court had blocked the remedy by the “independent judiciary” when it would be restored.

He said the incumbent judges were forgetting one basic principle of law that they could not be judge in their own case.

“The persons who validated the emergency were not competent to do so because they were beneficiaries of the order which even its author Gen Musharraf had admitted was unconstitutional.

“The so-called validation of the proclamation of emergency and dismissal of the review petition is an exercise in futility as it is without jurisdiction and lawful authority and is of no lawful effect or consequence.”

The independent judiciary would be competent to set it aside, he said.

He argued no important political party or bar representative had challenged the proclamation of emergency for the simple reason that no lawful judicial forum was available to decide the matter. Had they filed any petition, they would have accorded recognition to the existing courts.