A full court reference of Sindh High Court on retirement of Justice Syed Zawar Hussain Jaffry, who is retiring on April 23, 2007, was held on Thursday with Chief Justice SHC Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed in the chair at his court room.
The reference was attended by Judges of SHC including Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Muhammad Moosa K Laghari, Justice Muhammad Afzal Soomro, Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffery, Justice Azizullah M Memon, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Amir Hani Muslim, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Maqbool Baqar, Justice Muhammad Ather Saeed, Justice Mrs Yasmeen Abbasi, Justice Mrs Qaiser Iqbal, Justice Ali Sain Dino Metlo and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah.
Advocate General Sindh, Anwar Mansoor Khan, Deputy Attorney General Akhter Ali Mehmood, Vice Chairman Sindh Bar Council Amin Lakhani, President SHC Bar Association Abrar Hassan, President Karachi Bar Association Iftikhar Javed Qazi and number of prominent lawyers were also present. Speaking on the occasion Chief Justice SHC Sabihuddin Ahmed and others lauded the services of Justice Zawar Hussain Jaffery and paid glowing tributes to him.
Addressing on the occasion, President SHCBA Abrar Hassan said that bench and bar were facing yet another crisis, which was unprecedented in the history of Pakistan. This time the head of the judiciary was not only humiliated publicly but also detained for some days, his telephone disconnected and he forcibly confined in his house, he added.
This highhanded attitude towards the head of judiciary was simply intolerable, he said adding the bar, therefore, rose to the occasion as it considered that judges of Supreme Courts derived their sovereignty from the Constitution and they were not servants of any individual.
President SHCBA said that bar wanted to emphasise that in any democratic country governed by a written Constitution, the Constitution was supreme, sovereign, and three organs of state can not leap outside the boundary of their orbit and authority.
Therefore, in the estimation of bar the reference filed against CJP after his confinement was simply mala fide and calculated to permanently subjugate the members of Supreme Judicial Council to the wishes of Executive, he said adding the bar was conscious of the fact that the frequent boycott of judicial work was causing hardship to masses.
Abrar Hasan hoped that Justice Zawar Hussain Jaffery's ability would be utilised somewhere else as he was still physically and mentally fit and alert. On behalf of SHCBA members, he also wished him for a happy and prosperous life.