MARDAN, Nov 10: Justice Shahjehan Khan Yousufzai, a deposed judge of the Peshawar High Court (PHC), on Saturday rejected the imposition of state of emergency in the country, terming the move unconstitutional.

He was addressing a meeting of lawyers at the District Bar Room in Mardan. He said the ‘president’s illegal act’ had paralysed all national institutions, particularly the judiciary and the media.

He said that under articles 232, 233, 234 and 235 there was a provision for emergency but the existing circumstances did not justify the imposition of emergency rule.

He said he was proud of the Supreme Court’s decision of Nov 3 against the imposition of emergency and urged judges not to take oath under the PCO because doing so was illegal. Governments should be run by the parliament and political parties and not by the General Headquarters (GHQs).

Highlighting the lawyers’ role in the country’s independence movement, he said that generals played no role in India’s partition.

He said that armed forces had never interfered in the political affairs of India since its independence, adding that it had made a constitution for itself while Pakistan had been under the 1935 Act until 1958, which created stability in India and no martial law was imposed there.

He said the secession of East Pakistan was facilitated by military rule, adding that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had given a constitution in 1973 in which it was clearly written that whoever violated it would be hanged. But it was routinely violated and abrogated despite such harsh penalties.

He said that people approached courts in a bid to counter connection with price hike, find missing persons and seek succour to other problems, adding that the courts would have to deliver justice to the needy people. He said that the country was facing multiple internal threats like terrorism, lawlessness and injustice and the judiciary had to take stock of the situation to overcome them.

Praising the judges who refused to take oath under the new Provisional Constitution Order, Mr Justice Shahjehan said that superior courts’ deposed judges still held their posts because their dismissal orders were illegal. He added that the Supreme Court’s order against the PCO was intact.