ISLAMABAD: The ripple effects of a tirade against the judiciary by senior counsel Hamid Khan in Lahore recently were felt in the Supreme Court on Friday when it reminded Advocate Abdul Latif Khosa that his presence should serve as a restraining influence whenever fiery spee­ches are made “in your presence”.

Although a three-judge Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial and consisting of Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed, did not point to any specific episode, Latif Khosa, a former attorney general, believes that the remarks were a veiled reference to the speech delivered by Hamid Khan in Lahore.

The court made the observation after it took up a case of Ahmed Ali, who was facing a trial at the Anti-Terrorism Court in Karachi, but the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) transferred the case to Islamabad.

Hamid Khan made a scathing criticism of the state of affairs in the judiciary in his speech at a hotel during a ceremony to launch the candidature of Sardar Latif Khosa for presidentship of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA).

Since the body’s presidentship will go to Punjab this year by rotation, lawyers’ associations in the province have become involved in politicking.

The elections are to be held on Oct 31.

Currently Abdul Latif Afridi, who hails from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is serving as the SCBA’s president.

The two hottest contenders for the association’s leadership are Sardar Latif Khan Khosa, who has been fiel­ded by the Professional Group, also known as Hamid Khan group, and Ahsan Bhoon, who represents the Independent group, or the Asma group.

The SCBA elections have always been keenly watched since the association has been playing a forceful role in the country’s politics and has acted as a bridge during confrontations bet­ween the executive and the judiciary.

When hearing in the Ahmed Ali case concluded, the bench pointed towards Latif Khosa and observed that since the counsel was a seasoned lawyer, he should intervene whenever a lawyer makes inflammatory remarks against the judiciary.

The prestige and dignity of the judiciary rests on the conduct of the bar, one of the judges said.

Sardar Khosa replied that the “respect of the bench and the bar are dependent on each other”.

Coming to Ahmed Ali’s case, the court granted time to the federal government to furnish additional documents explaining why it was transferred from one court to another.

Latif Khosa, who represents Ahmed Ali, argued that a case cannot be transferred from one court to another during the course of hearing.

The bench observed it was necessary to understand why the case was transferred from one province to another without a clear directive by the court concerned.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2021