ISLAMABAD: The Pakis­tan Bar Council (PBC) — the top regulatory body of lawyers — on Monday took strong exception to the alleged motivated move by the ruling party to file a reference under Article 209 of the Constitution against Supreme Court judge Justice Asif Saeed Khosa.

In a statement, PBC vice chairman Mohammad Ahsan Bhoon and its Executive Committee chairman Chaudhry Hafeezur Rehman regretted what they called the initial attempt to move the reference allegedly by the secretary to National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq with the purpose of pressurising the judiciary.

After the news about the filing of the reference broke on Saturday, the speaker’s office denied moving any reference before the Supreme Judicial Council against any judge and urged the media to refrain from attributing, mis-stating or exaggerating any motive to the speaker.

“This was an effort by the government to overawe the senior members of the judiciary and to send threatening messages to other judges,” Mr Bhoon said while talking to Dawn.

In the statement, the two PBC leaders warned that all those behind the ill-advised move of filing the reference should refrain from targeting the judiciary in an attempt to frustrate the possible outcome of criminal cases being initiated by National Accountability Bureau courts.

‘Illegal tactics’

“It is highly condemnable that the ousted prime minister, his children and close family members, instead of facing trial in NAB courts in respect of criminal cases of money laundering against them, have started taking illegal tactics through their cronies to pressurise the judiciary and NAB courts only to sabotage the process of accountability initiated against them as a result of historic judgement of the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case,” they said.

They warned that any move to pressurise the judges and the judiciary would be tantamount to hindering the process of dispensation of justice and, therefore, would be opposed by the legal fraternity with full force to ensure the majesty of rule of law and independence of the judiciary.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2017