The government has engaged top lawyers of the country, including Sharifuddin Pirzada , former President of the Supreme Court Bar Association Malik Abdul Qayyum, former Advocate-General of Punjab Malik Maqbool Elahi, Ahmad Raza Kasuri, Nawaz Kharal, Ibrahim Satti and others to defend the President, Supreme Judicial Council.
And the government in the Supreme Court in the cases relating to the Presidential Reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. A three-member Bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan, is hearing the petition of Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and several other parties against filing of the reference against the Chief Justice under Article 209 of the Constitution on March 9, alleging bias of three members of the Supreme Judicial Council against Justice Iftikhar, and other constitutional matters.
Earlier, Shariffuddin Pirzada, who is Prime Minister's special advisor on legal matters with the rank of a Senior Minister, had declined to appear on behalf of the government in the SJC, but one member of government lawyers, Maqbool Elahi, told newsmen here on Monday that he (Pirzada) has now agreed to defend the government.
The Supreme Judicial Council is also meeting here on Tuesday to hear the Presidential Reference against Justice Chaudhry, and the referring authority's lawyers Wasim Sajjad and Dr Khalid Ranjha are expected to submit their arguments on the objections raised by the respondent's counsel vis-a-vis constitutional validity of the reference against the CJ, and competency of the SJC to hear it.
The panel of lawyers for Justice Iftikhar, headed by Aitzaz Ahson, told newsmen that they would first appear before the Supreme Court which, according to them, is a higher judicial forum, and if there was time, they would appear before the SJC.
They said that Justice Iftikhar would go to the Supreme Court for his appearance before the Supreme Judicial Council in the morning but would not attend the Supreme Court proceedings.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Bar Council, Supreme Court Bar Association, High Courts Bars and district bar associations have announced countrywide boycott of courts on Tuesday and opposition political parties have announced to continue their protests and agitation.
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