MicroPakistan

Well, what can I say? Read it for yourself and decide what you make of it. Utterly shameful!!

A couple of months ago I saw a German movie called ‘Downfall‘. The movie goes on to show Hitler’s last few days as his mood oscillates between unjustified optimism one moment to suicidal depression the next. Reality does finally start to break through and the Fuhrer and the others in the bunker start to make their final personal preparations for the inevitable.

The real question is when will reality finally start to break through to our leaders? At the moment they same to be riding the ‘optimism, arrogance, delusion’ wave. If they go this way for much longer, there will be only one outcome - a continuing downfall leading to destruction.

The following article appeard in The News.

Chief justice spills the beans •He was forced to stay at the Army House for five hours against his will •Refusal to quit angered president who left the room after 30 minutes •PM did not reply to his explanation even by gesture •DG MI, DG ISI continued to press him to call it a day •His car was stripped of both Pakistan flag and emblem •His scared children could not continue their studies

ISLAMABAD: Lead counsel for Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Ch Aitzaz Ahsan, on Tuesday filed an affidavit of his client in the Supreme Court covering four days of events that he faced from March 9 to 13, when he was rendered non-functional.

The affidavit, filed in support of the constitutional petition filed by the CJ under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, reads that on March 09, 2007, he headed bench No 1 of the apex Court as chief justice and heard several cases till about 10.30 a.m. “The bench rose briefly and had to reassemble for the day except the CJ who left for the Army House, Rawalpindi, to meet the president.”

The CJ arrived at the Army House at about 11:30 a.m. along with his staff/protocol staff and was shown to a waiting room/visitors room. After five minutes of his arrival, President General Pervez Musharraf, wearing his military uniform, came into the room along with his military secretary and ADC. As soon as the president took his seat, a number of TV cameramen and photographers were also ushered to the room. They took several pictures and made movie footage, reads the affidavit.

The affidavit states that while discussing the Saarc Law Conference, Saarc Chief Justices Conference and the concluding session of the golden jubilee ceremony of the Supreme Court, the president said a compliant against him had been received by him from a judge of the Peshawar High Court. The CJ replied that it was not based on facts as his case had been decided by a two-member bench and that attempts were being made to maliciously involve other members of the bench as well. On this, the president said there are a few more complaints against the CJ as well and after saying so, he directed his staff to call the other persons.

The other persons, who entered the room on the president’s direction, included the prime minister, DG MI, DG ISI, DG IB, COS and another official. All officials (except DG IB and COS) were in uniform, reads the affidavit.

At this moment, the president started reading from small pieces of paper. However, he had no single consolidated document. The allegations, which were being put to the CJ had been taken from the contents of a notorious letter written by Naeem Bukhari with absolutely no substance in them, the affidavit said. The CJ strongly refuted these allegations as being baseless and engineered to defame him personally and the judiciary as a whole. On this, the president said that the CJ had obtained cars from the Supreme Court for his family. However, the CJ vehemently denied the allegation.

The affidavit further reads that the president went on to say that the CJ was being driven in a Mercedes, to which the CJ promptly replied; “here is the prime minister. Ask him, he has sent me the car himself”. The CJ states that the PM did not reply even by a gesture. Surprisingly, the president went on to say that the CJ had interfered in the affairs of Lahore High Court and had not accepted and taken heed of most of the recommendations of the chief justice of the LHC.

The president insisted that the CJ should resign and in case of his resignation, the former would accommodate the latter. The president also said in case of refusal to resign, the CJ will have to face a reference, which could be a bigger embarrassment for him.

The CJ states that he said resolutely that he wouldn’t resign and would face any reference since he is innocent and has not violated any code of conduct or any law, rule or regulation. “I believe that I am myself the guardian of law. I strongly believe in God who will help me”.

This ignited the fury of the president who stood up angrily and left the room along with his MS, COS and the PM, saying that others would show evidence to him (the CJ).

The meeting continued for not more than 30 minutes, reads the CJ’s statement. The DG MI, DG ISI and DG IB remained behind and continued to sit with the CJ but did not show him a single piece of evidence. They (except DG IB) insisted that the CJ should resign while the CJ continued to assert strongly that the allegations were baseless and for a collateral purpose.

The CJ said he was forced to stay in the same room during the subsequent hours till 5 p.m. and despite requests, he was not allowed to see his staff/protocol officer. Sometimes, all the persons would leave the CJ alone in that room but would not allow him to leave. Despite several attempts to leave the room and the Army House, the CJ was made to stay there on one pretext or the other and was kept there ‘absolutely against his will’ till past 5 p.m., says the affidavit.

“After 5 p.m., DG MI came in again and told the CJ that his car was outside to drive him ‘home’. DG MI came out of the room and once outside, told the CJ, ‘this is a bad day, now you are taking a separate way and you are informed that you have been restrained to work as a judge of the Supreme Court or chief justice of Pakistan’,” reads the affidavit.

The CJ’s car was stripped of both the flags of Pakistan and the emblem and his staff officer informed him that Justice Javed Iqbal had taken oath as the acting chief justice and it had been shown on TV. “The driver also informed the deponent that he had been instructed not to take the deponent to the Supreme Court while on way to the residence of the deponent.”

On the way, the CJ directed the driver to go to the Supreme Court but an Army official prevented his car from proceeding further near the Sports Complex. Meanwhile, Tariq Masood Yasin, SP, appeared and ordered the driver to come out of the car so that he could drive the deponent and also asked the deponent’s gunman to come out of the car.

The CJ states that he said, “Okay, I will not go to the Supreme Court but my driver will drive my car and my gunman will escort me home’. Only then, did Tariq Masood Yasin agreed to let the car be driven by the CJ’s driver”.

The CJ states that he reached home at 5:45 p.m. and was shocked to see police officials and agencies personnel without uniform all around his residence. Landline phones had already been disconnected; cell phones, TV, cables and DSL had been jammed or disconnected. The CJ and his family were completely cut off for several days from the outside world.

On March 10, 2007, the CJ received a ‘Notice’ from the Supreme Judicial Council whereby he came to know that a reference had been filed by the president before the Council. There was also a copy of the order passed by the Council whereby the CJ had been restrained to function as a judge of the Supreme Court and or as the chief justice of Pakistan.

The affidavit said that the meeting of the SJC was called on March 9, 2007 after 6 p.m. in an indecent haste and he was restrained to perform his functions as a judge or chief justice of the Supreme Court. “In fact, no meeting had been called by the secretary of the Council namely Faqir Hussain. No one had issued either agenda for the meeting or notice thereof.”

The CJ further states that he had been detained along with his family members including his young child of seven years from the evening of March 9, 2007 till March 13, 2007. He could not use any vehicle since there was none and he had to walk till the other end of the road when the police officer confronted him and manhandled him as has now been established by a judicial enquiry, the CJ stated.

An attempt was being made to fabricate evidence against the CJ through the SC staff attached to him by coercive means and even employees working at his residence were taken and made to appear before some agency officials.

The CJ’s chamber was sealed and certain files lying therein were removed and some of them handed over to the ISI under the supervision of the newly-appointed registrar. No one was allowed to meet the CJ freely, in as much as his colleagues were not allowed access to him, says the affidavit.

The CJ further states that his children were not allowed to go to school, college and university. He and his family members were deprived of basic amenities of life, i.e. medicines and doctors, etc. They were made to go through a lot of mental, physical and emotional agony, torture and embarrassment and words could never be enough to properly and adequately express that.

The affidavit says all these tactics were used to put pressure on him to tender his resignation ‘but after March 13, 2007, when the CJ succeeded in establishing at least some contact with his lawyers’ team during a brief appearance before the Council, and after March 16, 2007, the ongoing pressure to resign the office was released to some extent.’

The CJ states that his children were so scared that they could not go to school or university and one of his daughters failed to appear in her 1st year exams while the other is not being allowed to take her examination (1st semester) at Bahria University due to lack of attendance. “My younger son is also not in a position to attend his school because of circumstances through which I am passing,” the CJ concluded.

Meanwhile, Ch Aitzaz Ahsan on Tuesday concluded his arguments before the full court regarding the maintainability of the petition filed by the CJ. He submitted that the CJ’s petition is maintainable under Article 184(3) of the Constitution because the matter is of the highest public importance (interest) and the issues concern the fundamental rights.

The full court adjourned the hearing for today (Wednesday). Later, while talking to mediamen, Aitzaz Ahsan said, “Some of the details that are necessary and relevant to the petition have been spelt out in the affidavit by the chief justice.”

By Mohammad Qasim