We’ll find out the date of the President’s ‘departure’ today. Obviously, we know that the office he’ll vacate will be the army office and not the presidential one. Once it is established that the President will be vacating one office, we might get a lot of petitions questioning the President’s ability to stand for re-elections.
Considering the response of the SC in this case, I would assume that they would not create any issues for Musharraf to stand for re-election as they believe it will ‘derail the system’. That is a valid point. But things must be seen in light of the existing law. A lot will depend on how liberally the SC interprets the law. Undoubtedly, there are no signs of the SC’s importance abating in the near future.
Continue reading ‘‘When is mushy going?’, asks SC’
The latest news to come out of Islamabad is that the government is contemplating imposing a state of emergency. Although it is not confirmed as yet, some sources say that the details have been finalised and it will be imposed in the next 24-48 hours. Initially it was reported that it would be put in effect by midnight, but that has not happened.
Most TV hosts have questioned the reason for declaring a state of emergency at this time. GEO News stated that there were three reasons: US threats, Chinese workers and NA debate. The last two make absolutely no sense (If ‘NA debate’ refers to a debate on the law and order situation in NWFP and Balouchistan then it may be the strongest point, however, the killings and kidnappings of Chinese workers is a flawed reason considering the many Pakistanis that have died recently. It may have been better to just cite the general law and order situation in the country.) and the first one sounds baseless in light of recent statements emanating out of the US. Things have only improved in the last 2-3 weeks.
Continue reading ‘Pakistan: Declaration of emergency imminent’
Most of you may be aware that Javed Hashmi has been released by the SC following his life sentence for defaming the army. There were legal arguments presented by Mr Hashmi’s counsel on which the three-member bench relied, however it reassures a lot of Pakistanis that the balance had tilted in favour of justice. Very rarely have the people felt that their judiciary is indepedent in the face of military pressure; this is one of those times in Pakistan’s history.
Continue reading ‘SC orders release of PML-N Javed Hashmi; Justice Qayyum apointed AG’
It took 4 months and 11 days for Pakistan’s top judges to decide on the reference filed by President Musharraf. There is no doubt that it is a ‘landmark verdict’ and happens to be the first verdict against a military ruler. People in Pakistan are celebrating and rightly so. There are images of people and in particular lawyers distributing mithai (sweets) to mark this momentous occasion.
Many have hailed it as a victory for democracy and for those who believe in democracy, justice and rule of law. I am not sure of its legal significance as the ‘short order’ gives away very little details. In any event, the public had given its verdict a few months ago and if the decision had been unfavourable it would have been regarded as a rigged decision. The SC’s decision basically reaffirms what the people wanted to hear. The real question that comes to my mind is: are we better off today than we were a few days ago? The answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no’.
Continue reading ‘4 months and 11 days later: A time to reflect’
The decision made in the people’s court a long, long time ago has finally been affirmed by the Supreme Court. A thirteen member bench of the Supreme Court has decided (Order in detail below) on the petition submitted by CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry and declared the following (a detailed judgment will be delivered at a later date):
I got an email recently that talks about the government using covert tactics to pressurise Justice Ramday, who is heading the full bench hearing the CJ’s case. I really can’t confirm how much of this is true, but considering the way things are going, you never know. At the moment there is no way of finding out the veracity of these claims. All I can confirm is that a reference has been filed against certain PIA officials and Cyrus Minwala, general sales manager of Cathay Pacific by NAB.
Conspiracy theories are abound and not all of them are true. However, if this is indeed true…then…well, what can I say. Read below and make up your own mind. Just thought I’d put it for your benefit. What if it really is on to something.
The real inside story of Justice Ramday and the PIA Reference - Email
Has anyone tried to find out why suddenly the NAB has moved a reference against all those PIA executives who leased and purchased aircraft from Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airlines several years ago?
Continue reading ‘The real inside story of Justice Ramday and the PIA Reference’
False affidavits filed by Musharraf’s team claims Aitzaz
An analysis of the affidavits on Live with Talat Husain by the famous lawyer/judge/Federal Law Minister Frakhruddin G. Ebrahim. Gives a good explanation of the relevance of these affidavits, which are being given huge importance. However, they don’t have much evidential value without oral testimony.
Continue reading ‘Update on the CJ issue’
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
Continue reading ‘Physical and Mental Intimidation By Chief-of-Army Staff of Pakistan’s Chief Justice’
Muneer Malik (President Supreme Court Bar Association) defends the legal community by tackling all the arguments put forward by those attacking it. It is brilliantly written and highly convincing. The great thing is that it takes the ‘politicisation’ of the issue head-on and argues that this is not a legal issue, but a purely political one.
Having said that he moves onto say that the reference against the Chief Justice and the illegitimacy of Musharraf’s military regime are interlinked. He implicitly argues that the General must go in order to withhold the constitution and the rule of law. I only wonder if it was so obvious that Musharraf’s regime was illegitimate then why did the CJ take oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) in 2000 and why didn’t the lawyers protest against this before. Why was a movement or struggle for the independence of judiciary not launched when six judges of the Supreme Court, Justice Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui, Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, Justice Wajih Uddin, Justice Khalilur Rehman, Justice Mamoon Qazi and Justice Kamal Mansoor refused to break their constitutional oath in order to take another oath under the PCO. Did the lawyers have to wait for this to happen to think about upholding the constitution and the independence of the judiciary?
I ask these questions only so that some of you reading this may be able to offer an explanation. This is in no way doubting the intentions of those concerned, but only expressing certain thoughts that cropped up in my mind while reading this article. Otherwise, I am completely in favour of what the legal community has done in this case and am completely convinced by Mr. Malik’s arguments.
DAWN, May 11 2007
Not motivated by politics
By Muneer A. Malik
Continue reading ‘Lawyer responds: Muneer Malik defends the legal community’
Here are a few accounts of people who witnessed the 12th May incident firsthand while doing their jobs. You can sense the disgust in both these emails. The first one is an email from a doctor posted at Teeth Maestro. The second was posted on Karachi Metroblogs and is written by Urooj Zia who writes for Daily Times.
On the other hand the CJ issue just keeps on getting interesting with more entertainment coming our way in the form of Mr Aitzaz Ahsan’s proposed Rs. 2 Billion libel suit against the President of Pakistan for blaming him for the deaths in Karachi. I wonder how he came up with that figure. Surely, his loss of reputation is not worth that much. It’s quite obvious he’s getting maximum political mileage from all this. An article in OutlookIndia.com by Mariana Babar hails him as Pakistan’s newest political hero. It says, ‘He’s said to be giving sleepless nights to Benazir. So, will he be tempted to float his own party, say, a Justice Party for the elections? The man who led the cavalcade from Islamabad to Lahore only smiles at the question. He isn’t talking, at least for now.‘ Now, THIS is a joke!
Continue reading ‘5/12/07 Karachi: Firsthand accounts’
