Adil Najam
In a rather shocking move, the President, Gen. Perzez Musharraf just dismissed the current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry for alleged “misuse of authority.”
According to a breaking news segment at The News:
The president has submitted a case against Chaudhry to the Supreme Judicial Council. Musharraf had received “numerous complaints and serious allegations for misconduct, misuse of authority and actions prejudicial to the dignity of office of the chief justice of Pakistan,” and Chaudhry had been unable to give a satisfactory explanation, sources said. The report did not specify what he was accused of. The council is a panel of top Pakistani judges that adjudicates cases brought against serving judges and will decide whether the charges against Chaudhry merit his formal dismissal and whether he should be prosecuted.
Basing their story on the Associated Press of Pakistan, the BBC reports further:
Mr Chaudhry was summoned to explain himself to Gen Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. His case was then referred to the Supreme Judicial Council which will decide if Mr Chaudhry should be prosecuted.
The move has shocked many, but signs of its coming can now be identified in hindsight. Mr. Chaudhry had served as the Chief Justice since 2005 and, on occasion, had taken steps that had irked the power structure in Pakistan.
According to a Khaleej Times report, for example:
Last June, the Supreme Court rejected a government move to sell 75 percent of state-owned Pakistan Steel Mills to a Saudi-Russian-Pakistani consortium for 21.7 billion rupees ($362 million). Mill workers claimed it was greatly undervalued. Also, Chaudhry has heard a landmark case brought by relatives of dozens of people believed taken into secret custody by Pakistani intelligence agencies. The chief justice has pressed the government to provide information on the detainees whereabouts. Talat Masood, a political analyst, said the removal of Chaudhry demonstrated the power of the military and suggested that Musharraf’s government wanted to have a “pliable judiciary” ahead of parliamentary elections expected later this year. Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999, is widely expected to seek another five-year term as president from parliament this fall.
Recently, an open letter from Advocate Naeem Bokhari addressed to the Chief Justice and making a number of allegations against him – some personal – has been circulating on the internet extensively. Over the last week, I received probably two dozen emails with that letter in it (many from our readers, and one from my mother!). It seems to have created a stir. Many readers have been writing that we do a post on that letter. I had not done so, just because the letter was a little puzzling to me and its motivations were not clear. I wondered also if there were hints of personal rivalries or issues. On the other hand it was a well-written and seemingly sincere letter from a person of known integrity. In retrospect, the way the letter ended was prophetic:
My Lord, this communication may anger you and you are in any case prone to get angry in a flash, but do reflect upon it. Perhaps you are not cognizant of what your brother judges feel and say about you. My Lord, before a rebellion arises among your brother judges (as in the case of Mr. Justice Sajjad Ali Shah), before the Bar stands up collectively and before the entire matter is placed before the Supreme Judicial Council, there may be time to change and make amends. I hope you have the wisdom and courage to make these amends and restore serenity, calm, compassion, patience and justice tempered with mercy to my Supreme Court. My Lord, we all live in the womb of time and are judged, both by the present and by history. The judgement about you, being rendered in the present, is adverse in the extreme.
In all honesty, one has to wonder, however, whether it was that letter and other recent media focus on the Chief Justice that led to the removal of the Chief Justice, or whether these were merely instruments designed to prepare the way for this removal?
In either case, a removal of the Chief Justice in this way and for such reasons and at this time is a sad, sad development that will be one more blow to the hopes of the development of an independent judiciary in Pakistan.
Note: At various points we have reproduced, in our right-most column, cartoons from Daily Times (and here) and The News.
I must confess that after the last letter from Naeem Bokhari, I have very little to no faith in him or his motivations. I wonder if this is a blackmail attempt by him becaue he has an Income Tax case or something against him. I don’t know Abdullah Yousuf but from what I do know he is supposed to be one of the competent people. On teh otehr hand, Naeem Bokhari has already proved himself to be a tool of powers by his last letter. So, I will wait for someone more credible to say something. Sorry!
ADVOCATE NAEEM BOKHARI’S 2ND LETTER – TO THE CHAIRMAN CENTRAL BOARD OF REVENUE, ISLAMABAD.
Update: I just read it. Please do read it in its entirety as it is the 2nd brilliant eye opening letter by the Advocate Naeem Bokhari, which might also have some unforeseen happenings attached to it. My comments follow the post.
Mr. Abdullah Yousaf
Chairman
Central Board of Revenue
Islamabad
Pakistan
Dear sir:
I write this letter as an Officer of the Supreme Court of Pakistan; as an Advocate of the apex Court and the High Courts; as an Attorney who has paid more income tax from his earnings than many of my friends and colleagues, and as a patriot who has a stake in the dispensation of economic justice, intimately and vitally interested in the efficient functioning of Central Board of Revenue, Pakistan.
Many Commissioners of Income Tax and Collectors of Customs know me for decades, as a person endowed by nature with a pleasant disposition and acceptance of human failings. As a true patriot and well wisher of the Country, I gave my sincere observations to Mr Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the former Chief Justice of Pakistan which proved beneficial for him as well as the Country and saved both from a bigger disaster. In same manner, I submit myself with these sincere facts towards the Central Board of Revenue as I also want to see it on a high pedestal of dignity, compassion and justice, tempered with mercy.
I have seen Central Board of Revenue headed by Mueen-uddin Khan, Syed Mohsin Asad, Miyan Iqbal Fareed, Syed Riyaz Naqvi and Riyaz Malik and how the CBR functioned under them in the 1980s/1990s.
I was appalled at the manner in which the Central Board of Revenue remained under the reins of mismanagement and corruption. I was horrified by the move of former Chairman CBR, Riyaz Malik, who got extended the serving contract periods of all the CBR Members hired from the private sector, on the pretext of Tax Reforms. This was clearly designed to block your posting as the Chairman CBR by getting extended his own tenure in the name of Tax Reforms. The accelerated issue of the notification transferring and posting you as the Chairman CBR put Riyaz Malik’s move to rest.
I believed that you were vigorous, capable of lifting up the Central Board of Revenue, creating an espirit-de-corps among your officers, restoring the dignity and grandeur of the Central Board of Revenue, particularly considering the long tenure before you.
Alas this has not come about!!!
I am not perturbed by your strategy of single-outing yourself from the department you head through harsh and contemptuous attitude towards the staff and officers (despite my belief that it’s the mutual respect and morale boosting through providing a sense of belonging that would have improved the working of the CBR and raised its image in the eyes of everybody. Over reaction by blaming officers to be corrupt, superseding tens of officers on charges of corruption without any justification or even instancing a single case for the corruption and portraying yourself to be someone alien – on a different planet despite using all the benefits of that planet is just fluff, not the substance of an office).
I am mildly amused at your desire to be present on every TV Channel by sacrificing already set important official meetings and engagements, disregarding the awaiting officers and staff. I am titillated by your being so close to the some selected ‘Business Community’ that a tax consultant, Mr. Shabbar Zaidi, a Chartered Accountant of A.F Fargusons claims that all his budget proposals have been incorporated and passed to make Law, without a single exception, since you took the office as the Chairman, CBR. It’s like asking India to devise a strategy to resolve Kashmir dispute, and then implementing that strategy in letter and spirit without pointing a finger on any point.
I am not perturbed that Mr. Abdul Razzak has been appointed by you as Member Audit who does not even know the ABC of tax management and his only credit is that he is related to you and has the reputation of being someone with “magical handsâ€
Thanks KAWA1 for your optimism. Yes, you are right we should not let the hope fade away.
babbi, I feel your frustration but trust me my friend, this will end. We thought Zia ul Haq was there forever…what happened!
The tyrants ultimately fade away..Umer brings encouraging news of CJ reception by 2500 lawyers… someone in President House must be worried!!
kawa1, I feel sad for your friend and this country.
I am totally depressed and lost any kind of hope that anything good will happen in our lifetime.
It is absolute chaos which is not likely to end as all the pakistanis now have compromised to live in it.