KARACHI: Wajih sees no crisis if judiciary restored
By Ishaq Tanoli
KARACHI, March 13: Retired Justice Wajihuddin Ahmed on Thursday ruled out the possibility of a constitutional crisis in the country after the restoration of the pre-PCO judiciary and said the matter was very simple as the deposed judges could be restored by parliament through a resolution.
He said there was no need to amend the constitution since the Nov 3 steps were unconstitutional, while the fate of those pre-Nov 3 judges who had taken the oath under the Nov 3 PCO should be decided in the Supreme Judicial Council under Article 6 of the constitution.
“A bench of the Supreme Court on Nov 3 invalidated the promulgation of the PCO and directed the judges not to take the oath under it. But these judges have also violated the Supreme Court decision by taking the oath under the Nov 3 PCO.
“The third category is of those judges who were appointed after Nov 3. The appointment of these judges was not only made without constitutional consultations, but there was also no vacant post for further appointments. So they could be removed through a self-executory resolution of parliament, but they must not be detained as Musharraf did to the pre-PCO judiciary.”
He was addressing a joint general-body meeting of the Sindh High Court, Karachi and Malir bar associations held in the Shuhada-i-Punjab Hall of the City Courts in connection with the ‘Black flag week’, being observed across the country from March 9 to 16 to mark the first anniversary of the removal of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.
Criticising the statement of a PPP legal expert that a constitutional crisis would erupt if the deposed judges were reinstated, Wajihuddin Ahmed said, “Since the PCO judges have cleared the so-called National Reconciliation Ordinance and politicians are being acquitted under this, it will be difficult for the beneficiaries of the NRO to remove these judges.”
He said an accountability commission would be established to eradicate corruption and injustice from society, and every responsible person in this regard would be answerable to this commission.
He welcomed the Murree declaration and said if this was implemented in its spirit, it would pave the way for an independent judiciary and democracy.
He slammed America for dealing with one man for its own interests. He said the US state department had launched a report on human rights which said there was no solution in it about tracking down the missing persons. He said the report had neither mentioned the efforts of the deposed chief justice for the recovery of missing persons when he was in office nor it cited the detention of deposed judges, including the chief justice, since Nov 3, which was a clear violation of human rights.
He condemned the publication of blasphemous sketches by various Danish newspapers and demanded that the government call back its diplomats from Denmark and expel the Danish diplomats. He also called for a ban on imports from the offending countries.
Sindh High Court Bar Association President Rashid A. Razvi said that no constitutional crisis would erupt with the reinstatement of the deposed judges. In fact, he said, the constitutional crisis was created by President Musharraf on Nov 3 by suspending the constitution when parliament was there. He warned that if the judges were not reinstated, the lawyers would gear up the movement against the government and would hold a long march.
The lawyers also took out a procession from the City Courts to the Karachi Press Club after the general body meeting. They marched on different thoroughfares of the city, including M. A. Jinnah Road, and reached the Karachi Press Club and staged a sit-in there. The lawyers and political leaders spoke to the participants of the rally. Traffic remained suspended during the rally. Activists of political parities, including the Jamaat-i-Islami and Tehrik-i-Insaf, members of NGOs and civil society also attended the rally.
Meanwhile, legal proceedings remained suspended at the City Courts and the District Courts of Malir on Thursday as the lawyers stayed away from court proceedings in response to a strike call given by the Pakistan Bar Council.
