LARKANA, Jan 8: Deposed judge of the Supreme Court Rana Bhagwandas has said that the Supreme Court of Pakistan can take a suo motu action on Ms Bhutto’s assassination if it feels that the investigations into her killing are not being carried out properly.

Talking to Dawn at the residence of senior lawyer Abdul Ghafoor Bhurgri here on Tuesday, Justice Bhagwandas termed Ms Bhutto’s assassination a big tragedy and a fit case for initiating a suo motu action.

In reply to a question, he said his movements were restricted, adding that Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, three judges in Peshawar, two in Lahore and three in Islamabad were still under detention.

He said that Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was not only detained but his children were not being allowed to attend schools.He said the lawyers’ movement against the government had only slowed down because of Ms Bhutto’s mourning and detention of key leaders of the movement.

He said that what had been done with the judiciary was unconstitutional, illegal and no law and democratic society would condone it.

Justice Bhagwandas said that the working of the Supreme Court and high courts of the country was “unconstitutional”, claiming that they had lost the confidence of the people and lawyers were not appearing in courts.

In reply to a question, he said the government had not contacted him while he was in India. However, he said he had been pressurized to extend his leave during his stay in India which he had declined.

Addressing the district bar association earlier, Justice Bhagwandas said that an independent judiciary was vital for both judiciary and lawyers, adding that solution to all problems lay only in democracy.

He asked the people to wage a struggle for the independence of judiciary which was necessary for democracy and resolution of their all problems.

Mr Bhurgri, Abdul Razzak Soomro, Illahi Bakhsh Kehar, Mohammed Bachal Tunio, Abdul Hamid Bhurgri and Inayat Morio also spoke on the occasion.