Justice Ramday says verdict irrespective of consequences

The head of the 13-member Full Bench of Supreme Court, Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, has said that the Court will decide on merit irrespective of the consequences the petitions of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and 37 others against President's reference.
Justice Ramday made this observation when references were made to previous judgements of Superior Courts when effects of the decisions were frustrated by the then governments. The Court noted that in the Pervez Elahi vs Punjab government case in 1993, a five-member full bench of Lahore High Court had restored the Provincial Assembly, but Chief Minister Manzur Wattoo again dissolved the Assembly before implementation of the court order.
In another case, a Supreme Court Full bench had restored the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the National Assembly on May 26, 1993, but both President Ghulam Ishaque and PM Nawaz Sharif had to resign from their respective offices within three weeks because political crisis, created due to differences between the President and the Prime Minister, could not be resolved.
On this Aitzaz Ahsan, counsel for Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, assured the court that if restored, the Chief Justice would not resign from his office and would perform his functions under the Constitution.
He completed his main arguments on the question of admissibility of the CJP petition and told the court that he would complete the rest of his arguments by break time at 11.00 am on Tuesday. He said that there was no jurisdiction ouster clause in the Indian Constitution, since there has been no military rule, and courts take cognisance of all issues.
But, he said, in Pakistan, there have been four martial laws, "and all the dictators" forced the elected Assemblies to validate their usurpation of powers and illegal acts before restoring constitutional order in the county. He said that the nation knows how the 8th amendment and 17th amendments were passed by the assemblies and how the courts validated their coups de tat.
However, he quoted several cases where courts exercised their jurisdiction despite stringent ouster of jurisdiction clauses when mala fide, ultra vires and corum non judice were proved. Counsel for the Federation, Mohammad Qayyum conceded that the courts have jurisdiction in such cases. On seeing eminent constitution and jurisprudence expert Fakharuddin G. Ibrahim present in the courtroom, Justice Ramday asked him whether he was also appearing in any petition, to which Aitzaz replied: "We have brought him to match the status of Sharifuddin Pirzada."
Fakharuddin told Business Recorder that he had filed a petition on behalf of Balochistan Bar Association against Presidential reference. The hearing will continue on Tuesday.
The 13-member full court comprises Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi, Justice Faqir Mohammad Khokhar, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice M Javed Buttar, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Justice Sayed Saeed Asshad, Justice Nasirul Malik, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmad, Justice Chaudhry Ejaz Ahmad, Justice Sayed Jamshed Ali, Justice Hamid Ali Mirza and Justice Ghulam Rabbani.