Adil Najam
In a highly anticipated and awaited verdict, the Pakistan Supreme Court just declared the steps taken by then President Gen. Pervez Musharraf illegal. The details of the decision read out by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry are still filtering in and the implications of the decision are still not fully clear. I am still grappling with what this will actually mean in implementation and would love to hear from you what you think it will mean?
It is clear from the judgment that this does NOT change the legality of the current government or of the oath taken by President Zardari. But will it effect only the judiciary decisions (judges and how many) or does it have farther reaching impacts. My sense is, it will. But I am not fully clear just yet what these will be, and how. With this decision, it seems the Supreme Court and Chief Justice are back in the news big time and maybe more than just the rhetoric will heat up!
According to details (still coming in) in The News:
The Supreme Court of Pakistan Friday declared the steps taken on November 3, 2007 by former president Pervez Musharraf as unconstitutional. The judgment came after the 14-judge larger bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry completed the hearing of constitutional petitions regarding PCO judges, appointments of judges of higher judiciary and November 3, 2007 steps.
The Supreme Court in its short verdict declared the steps of November 3, 2007 taken by former president Pervez Musharraf as unconstitutional. Article 279 of the Constitution was violated on November 3, 2007, it said.
It termed as illegal and unconstitutional the sacking of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and the other higher judiciary as well as the appointment of Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar as chief justice.
The oath taken by President Asif Ali Zardari will not be affected by the SC verdict, is said. All the appointments made in the higher judiciary of Justice Abdul Hamid Dogar have been termed illegal. It termed as unconstitutional all the appointments of judges during November 3, 2007 to March 24, 2008. It said the strength of Supreme Court judges will remain 17. It declared unconstitutional all the steps taken by Pervez Musharraf during November 3, 2007 to December 15, 2007 including the increasing of number of superior judges through finance bill.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry announced the verdict.
The verdict said all the appointments of judges on and after November 3, 2007 under PCO were unconstitutional. The case of PCO judges will be referred to the Supreme Judicial Council, it said. The announcement of today’s verdict sent a wave of jubilation outside the Supreme Court and at all the bar associations. Sweets are being distributed as people and lawyers are chanting slogans in support of the judiciary. The 14-judge larger bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry reserved the judgment after completing the hearing of the case and announced it after a delay of over four and a half hour.
Yesterday on Geo News in programme “kehne me kia haraj he” Aitizaz Ahsan said…the PCO II judges are biased and the sitting judges (those who had been removed) are biased too!!!!
Isn’t this enough to say…the judgement was unfair and illegal!!!
As Pakistan faces the worst power outages of its history lasting up to 12 hours a day, I don’t expect any better from the supporters of a feudal democracy headed by a thug than to blame it all on the predecessors.
There is continuing and growing gap between the nation’s power supply and demand. An aspect of the increasing power outages from just a few hours in 2007 to over twelve hours a day now is the fact that most power producers are operating 30-40% below capacity, generating only 12000 MW when the installed capacity is about 20,000 MW. Companies like PEPCO, WAPDA and KESC owe billions of rupees in unpaid bills to the various power producers who are not buying enough fuel to operate on full capacity. Part of the problem is the widespread power theft accounting for as much as 30-40% of the total power produced. Even the government departments and government ministers and officials are guilty of not paying their bills while demanding the continuation of power flow.
The current electricity crisis is not just a little, inconsequential tree in a forest. It looms large over the entire forest. It’s the biggest problem facing the nation that is killing its productivity, and its economy. It’s destroying the livelihood of millions, making them unable to make ends meet. The lack of electricity is shutting down water pumping stations depriving people of the precious water they need for drinking and cleaning.
Blaming past leaders is the oldest trick in the book, but I think Pakistanis will soon wise up to it, and demand better performance from the crooks in charge, which of course won’t be forthcoming. Then Pakistanis will get tired of the daily losing struggle for roti, bijli and paani and beg for the military to return to fix the mess yet again.
Sham democracy & sham SC an example of Selective Justice. Musharraf was bad he was responsible for doing all the bad in this country which included election 2008 and subsequent events.
Musharaf never claimed his PCO was legal, he always said ‘he had to do this’. Atleast he had courage to accept his mistakes.
Has the CJ ever said he is sorry for taking oath under LFO?
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What is the point of sorting out judiciary now, why did he never took steps to provide quicker & accessible justice to people and steps against the corrupt lawyers in his long years as CJ before?
@Faisal Bashir
1. If indeed all of Musharraf’s rule is illegal, as you say, then all his actions including 2002 elections, appointing Iftikhar Chaudhry gang, and 2008 elections are illegal as well. This also includes the clemency and deals to your Amir-ul-Momineen. The principled way out is for Chaudhry gang to resign and fresh elections to be held in the country under a caretaker government. Any other approach is a legal fraud meant to deliver political benefits to a few.
2. The parliament that validated the LFO was full of Musharraf supporters, who were elected in an allegedly rigged election and who supported a dictator. If you call that a parliament of the “people” then also call Musharraf the peoples president. Those who claim to love LAW and DEMOCRACY would not accept any legal cover provided by such a parliament, but hypocrites and opportunists certainly will.
3. You are correct that both Dogar and Iftikhar cannot decide a case related to Nov 2007 events. Only a future Supreme Court, populated with judges who are not involved in the events can decide.
4. Musharraf and Dogar have no danger from the people of Pakistan, only from terrorists and perhaps emotional political workers.