FEDERAL Minister Ahsan Iqbal on Sunday claimed that the federal government attempted to end the strife with the Supreme Court but the move was not reciprocated by the other side, according to Jang newspaper website.

Speaking to the media in Lahore on Sunday, the minister said the government took “one step backward” to defuse the tension. “But the judiciary took two steps forward, taking the government’s move as a weakness.”

He questioned the chief justice’s discretionary power. “In which fiqah are chief justice’s discretionary powers justified,” the minister asked rhetorically.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2023