Justice Falak Sher declined to sit on the full Supreme Court convened to hear petitions challenging legality of the Presidential reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on Monday.
As the 14-member full court bench headed by Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramaday assembled to start day to day hearing of the constitutional petitions filed by Justice Iftikhar and others, Justice Falak Sher said: "I have seniority issues with the Chief Justice and other judges, therefore, it would be inappropriate for me to sit on the bench and hear the CJP case."
He said he was the senior most judge and his case of seniority is pending, there might be, therefore, a risk of "bias" irrespective of the final decision. Aitzaz Ahsan, leading counsel for the Chief Justice, said he has full confidence in him and he has no objection to his hearing of the case.
He, however, said if the judges sitting on the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) against whom the Chief Justice levelled allegation of bias, had taken similar decision, he would not have come to the Supreme Court to seek justice.
Justice Ramday observed that since Justice Falak Sher has declined to sit on the court, he would refer the case to the Acting Chief Justice for the constitution of the full court bench.
Earlier, one of the CJ panelists, former Justice Rashid Rizvi, requested the full court to take suo motu notice of May 12 happenings in Karachi and total disregard of Sindh High Court's orders by the Sindh government and the city administration.
He said that provincial administration did not obey court orders to remove hurdles on the Shahrae Faisal and other roads leading to the Sindh High Court building, venue of the SHC Bar Association Golden Jubilee function.
Rizvi said as hundreds of armed miscreants had cordoned off the Sindh High Court from all sides one judge (Justice Maqbool Baqir) had to climb the wall to come to his court, while another judge (Justice Mohammad Athar) had to take refuge in a nearby house after attack on his car.
He said the miscreants also threatened SHCBA President Ibrar Hassan of dire consequences on whose invitation the Chief Justice was to address the Bar. He said the Shahrae Faisal was blocked with trailers, heavy load trucks and oil tankers so that Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry could not reach the Sindh High Court building.
Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday said we are all concerned about the situation and the lawyers could invoke proper jurisdiction. In view of Justice Falak Sher's decision, Acting Chief Justice Rana Bhagwandas has reconstituted the full court bench to hear daily CJP case and decide complex constitutional, legal and jurisprudence issues raised in these petitions.
The 13-member full court bench headed by Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday includes Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi, Justice Faqir Mohammad Khokhar, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice M. Javed Buttar, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Justice Sayed Saeed Ashad, Justice Nasirul Malik, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmad, Justice Chaudhry Ejaz Ahmad, Justice Sayed Jamshed Ali, and two ad hoc judges, Justice Hamid Ali Mirza and Justice Ghulam Rabbani.
Justice Iftikhar, in his petition, has challenged the Reference against him dated March 9, 2007, the Notification dated March 9, 2007, whereby he was suspended. Notifications of Acting Chief Justices and Notification dated March 15, 2007 whereby he was sent on forced leave as well as the Constitution and competence of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) and the mode and manner of the proceedings before it. More than 20 other petitioners have also filed petitions in the Supreme Court raising a number of complicated constitutional, legal and jurisprudence issues.
Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada is leading a panel of prominent lawyers to represent the President of Pakistan as the referring authority and the SJC which have also been named as respondents. Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan is leading the Chief Justice's panel of lawyers.
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