Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on Tuesday spelling out the events and happenings between March 9 and March 13 when the President sent a reference against him to the Supreme Judicial Council and he appeared before the SJC to reply the charges.
Counsel for CJP, Aitzaz Ahsan told the Full Supreme Court that in his affidavit, petitioner Justice Iftikhar has narrated how he was "detained" in the Army House/Camp Office for five hours on March 9. And, how he was taken to his residence under custody the same evening and then how he and members of his family remained cut-off from the rest of the world for four days.
Earlier, the counsel concluded his five-day arguments on the question of maintainability of the CJP's petition under Article 184 (3) of the constitution under which the court has original jurisdiction to hear a case.
Article 184 (3) says "The Supreme Court shall, if it considers that a question of public importance with reference to the enforcement of any of the Fundamental Rights conferred by the Constitution is involved, have the powers to make an order of the nature mentioned in the said Article. "
The court has already observed that the matter is of utmost public importance since due to protests, blood has spilled on the streets. Aitzaz argued that independence of judiciary and security of tenure of a Judge is a fundamental right of the people and a matter of public importance.
He also gave a detailed reply to the preliminary objections raised by the counsel for the President and the Federation that the President, the Prime Minister, Governor, and federal ministers enjoy immunity under Article 248 and cannot be made a party in a case.
Aitzaz quoted several judgements in support of his contention that if an act of the President, Governor or Minister is mala fide & ultra vires, they could be made a party and their acts are accountable in a court.
He said that counsel for the President Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada took this position in Zafar Ali Shah case in the Supreme Court, and counsel for the Federation Malik Mohammad Qayyum who is a former Judge of the Lahore High Court, had also upheld this principle in one of his judgements.
Several senior advocates of the Supreme Court including Fakharuddin G. Ibrahim, Barrister Zafrullah Khan, Hamid Khan, Rashid A. Rizvi, Syed Iftikhar Hussain Gilani, Mujib Pirzada, Dr Farooq Hassan are also appearing on behalf of petitioners.
The court allocated Wednesday to Fakharuddin G. Ibrahim, counsel for the Balochistan High Court Bar Association, and Thursday to Hamid Khan and Rashid A. Rizvi, representing Pakistan Bar Council and Supreme Court Bar Association respectively to make their submissions.
The 13-member full court headed by Justice Khalilur 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 Asshad, 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.
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