PCO judges sent home
Updated at: 0214 PST, Monday, August 03, 2009
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari issued orders halting the PCO judges from functioning, Geo News reported Sunday night.
According to sources, President Zardari signed an order to this effect late Sunday night.
According to the order, at least 9 judges of Supreme Court, 6 Peshawar High Court judges, 7 Islamabad High Court judges, 20 Sindh High Court judges and 34 PCO judges of Lahore High Court have been stopped from functioning forthwith.
As a result of handout from President Zardari, as many as 76 judges of the Supreme Court and high courts would cease to hold their offices immediately as approved by President Zardari.
The official handout says: In pursuance of the judgment of the full bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan dated 31st July 2009, in constitutional petitions No 9 and 8 of 2009 (Sindh High Court Bar Association and Mr Nadeem Ahmed, Advocate vs Federation of Pakistan), the president is pleased to approve that the following judges of Supreme Court of Pakistan and High Courts shall cease to hold their offices with immediate effect:
Supreme Court
Justice Muhammad Qaim Jan, Justice Ijaz-ul-Hassan, Justice Muhammad Moosa K. Leghari, Justice Ch. Ejaz Yousuf, Justice Mian Hamid Farooq, Justice Syed Zawwar Hussain Jaffery, Justice Muhammad Farrukh Mahmud, Justice Shaikh Hakim Ali and Justice Sardar Muhammad Aslam
Lahore High Court
Justice Zubda-tul-Hussain, Justice Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry, Justice Khawaja Farooq Saeed, Justice Muhammad Akram Qureshi, Justice Khurshid Anwar Bhindar, Justice Mazhar Hussain Minhas, Justice Saifur Rehman, Justice S. Ali Hassan Rizvi, Justice Muhammad Ashraf Bhatti, Justice Rana Zahid Mahmood, Justice Kazim Ali Malik, Justice Hafiz Tariq Nasim, Justice Khalil Ahmed, Justice M. A. Zafar, Justice Malik Saeed Ejaz, Justice Syed Shaheen Masood Rizvi, Justice Ali Akbar Qureshi, Justice Muhammad Ahsan Bhoon, Justice Pervez Ali Chawla, Justice Habib Ullah Shakir, Justice Nazir Ahmed Ghazi, Justice Abdul Sattar Goraya, Justice Syed Ihtasham Qadir Shah, Justice Ms. Jamila Jahanoor Aslam, Justice Mahmood Akhtar Khan, Justice Jamshed Rahmat Ullah, Justice Pervez Inayat Malik, Justice Arshad Mahmood, Justice Irfan Qadir, Justice Syed Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari, Justice Ch. Naeem Masood, Justice Anwar-ul-Haq Pannu, Justice Muhammad Shafqat Khan Abbasi and Justice Imtiaz Rasheed Siddiqui
Sindh High Court
Justice Bin Yamin, Justice Khalid Ali Z. Qazi, Justice Salman Ansari, Justice Abdul Rehman Farooq Pirzada, Justice Abdul Rasheed Klwar, Justice Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani, Justice Syed Mehmood Alam Rizvi, Justice Ms. Soofia Latif, Justice Maqbool Ahmed Awan, Justice Safdar Ahi Bhutto, Justice Moharram G. Baloch, Justice Malik Muhammad Aqil, Justice Syed Shafaqat Ali Shah Masoomi, Justice Muhammad Iqbal Mahar, Justice Khadim Hussain M. Sheikh, Justice Muhammad Ismail Bhutto, Justice Arshad Siraj Memon, Justice Aamir Raza Naqvi, Justice Muhammad Karim Khan Agha and Justice Salman Talibuddin
Peshawar High Court
Justice Shaji Rehman Khan, Justice Ghulam Mohayuddin Malik, Justice Ziauddin Khattak, Justice Syed Mussaddiq Hussain Gilani, Justice Syed Yahya Zahid Gilani and Justice Muhammad Alam Khan
Islamabad High Court
Justice Muhammad Munir Paracha, Justice Syed Qalb-i-Hassan, Justice Raja Saeed Akram Khan, Justice Muhammad Arshad Tabrez, Justice Amjad Iqbal Qureshi, Justice Muhammad Ramzan Chaudhry and Justice Syed Intikhab Hussain Shah
The handout says the president of Pakistan has been further pleased to approve the repatriation of following the judges.
Justice Sakhi Hussain Bukhari & Justice Zia Pervez have been repatriated from Supreme Court of Pakistan while Justice Bilal Khan has been repatriated from Islamabad High Court.
The decision of Supreme Court dated 31st of July 2009 as projected by Nawaz Sharif is the biggest Fraud in Judicial History of Pakistan when he says that PCO judges have been sent home. PCO Judges are still working and non PCO judges have been sacked, packed and sent home. The beneficiaries of the recent judgment are Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, Mr. Justice Javed Iqbal, Mr. Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan, Mr. Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday Mr. Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Mr. Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani etc. All these judges violated the constitutional oath and took fresh oath under the PCO of General Musharaf after Pakistan army ousted Nawaz Sharif in October of 1999.
This judgment has all the attributes of a partial, one-sided and unfair verdict. Judges who have never ever taken oath under the PCO have been ousted by the PCO Chief Justice and his 13 cronies. The nation is celebrating and all the PCO judges are still continuing as judges. In short the fight between post November 3 PCO judges and post October 12 PCO judges has resulted in ouster of judges who took oath only under the Constitution of Pakistan and never ever under the PCO. The media, PML[N], the lawyers and other political forces are mixed up and are rejoicing the ouster of constitutionally appointed judges and PPP seems ignorant of this fact. Such things can only happen in Pakistan. After General Musharraf dislodged Nawaz’s government on 12th October 1999, Iftikhar Chaudhry in order to save his job took oath under the PCO. However when he lost his job on 3rd of November 2007 he condemned the PCO. Lets stop having double standards. All PCO judges should be removed regardless of the fact whether they took oath under the PCO before 2nd of November 2007 or thereafter. The irony is that PCO judges have removed those judges who took oath only under the constitution and never under any PCO. I fully agree with the comment that author of this judgment must meet the same fate which former Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah had met. After all Iftikhar Chaudhry and his cronies are either PCO judges or were appointed by General Musharaf who repeatedly violated the constitution. If the mess is to be cleaned up then all PCO judges must be packed up.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and his 13 cronies have taken oath under PCO I of 2000. All of these judges violated the Constitution of Pakistan in order to save their job. Iftikhar Chaudhry was himself a member of the bench of the Supreme Court which validated the Provisional Constitution Order of 2000 in Zafar Ali Shah’s case Almost all the Judges who occupy the Supreme Court building today had themselves accepted the PCO at a time when a constitutionally elected prime minister was sacked and his cabinet and government along with the National and the Provincial Assemblies were packed up. There is absolutely no justification for such judges to issue contempt notices to their fellow judges for taking oath under a subsequent PCO on the pretext of a so-called order passed by seven member bench of the Supreme Court. The fact of the matter is that such bench was never legally constituted and the seven judges who seemingly passed the order had in fact done so in order to once again save their jobs since they were not offered the oath under the PCO in 2007. The 14 member bench of the present Supreme Court by issuance of such contempt notice through order dated the 5th of October 2009 has fully exposed the double standards of these judges. According to these judges oath of PCO is justified when it comes to saving their job but in similar circumstances such oath by other judges becomes contempt of court. The 14 member bench is trying its level best to deny the opportunity of hearing to the fellow judges by putting them under constant fear and threat of contempt proceedings since the bench is apprehensive that their double standards and hidden motives may not unmask the real face of the so-called independent judiciary. These 14 schemers must know that ‘what’s good for the goose is good for the gander’ and any discrimination in dispensation of justice shall not remain camouflaged for long. The following verse of Holy Quran is of immense relevance:-
And they schemed, and Allah schemed (against them): and Allah is the best of schemers.
The above verse of Surah Âl ‘Imran (3:54) very aptly explains the fate of the schemers. Surely all such schemers shall soon meet their doom and Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and his collaborators shall be no exception.