Hurling fiery allegations, Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP) Senator Faisal Raza Abdi on Sunday demanded of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and other judges, who were reinstated under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO), to tender their resignations. He said that his party would "get rid of the PCO judges", besides presenting a bill in parliament to reinstate the 110 judges who were sacked earlier.
"Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is responsible for the alleged financial irregularities done by his son, Dr Arsalan Iftikhar. I will now personally investigate about Dr Arsalan's assets and will soon go to London to collect evidence against him. I will call another press conference after 10 days. I will probe into the accounts that he (Arsalan) has activated under the name of mamu," Abadi said while addressing a news conference here on Sunday.
He said that the Chief Justice should resign after his son, Arsalan Iftikhar, was alleged to be involved in the financial impropriety case.
Abadi said, "The Chief Justice says that he does not have any idea where his son got all that money from...I ask, when the case emerged, did he ask him where he got Rs900 million from?"
He alleged that Chief Justice Chaudhry had ordered the Lahore High Court (LHC) to issue a stay-order in a case pertaining to the Rs46 billion of outstanding dues on various cellular companies.
During the press conference, Faisal Raza showed bank account statements of Arsalan Iftikhar and raised questions about the legitimacy of his assets. He also showed that the billing address mentioned was that of the Chief Justice House in Islamabad.
He alleged that the Chief Justice House Islamabad had been misused for commercial purpose by the son of Chief Justice, Dr Arsalan.
He said: "This happened in front of Chief justice. He cannot pretend to not know anything. Who had given right to Dr Arsalan to use government's property for running his businesses? Could he not rent out an office in some other area?" he posed question.
The senator said that if the Chief Justice does not tender a resignation, then he will "force him out in the same way he had been restored as a judge". He said that the PPP had always respected the courts, our ministers appeared before the courts and even we sacrificed our prime minister. Abidi claimed that "a judicial martial-law has been imposed in the country."
He said that his party was being targeted by the Supreme Court while cases of PPP's opponents have been granted lengthy stay orders.
He requested the government to take steps for restoring the supremacy of parliament and said that only parliament had the authority to enact and amend laws. Abidi said : "Parliament is an institution which formulates laws and amend the Constitution. No one has right to criticise its laws."
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