Supreme Court to complete hearing on Chief Justice's petition today

20 Jul, 2007

The 13 member Full Supreme Court Thursday accepted a request of Aitzaz Ahsan, counsel of the Chief Justice to give him more time to complete his final submissions on Friday. In his concluding submissions, Aitzaz said the two sides have admitted that:
(a) a meeting between the President and the CJP took place in the Army camp office, Rawalpindi on 9th March 2007 for two hours - one hour one on one and one hour in the presence of the Prime Minister and Intelligence Chiefs.
(b) In these meetings reference against the Chief Justice was discussed and he was asked to resign
(c) The President left the Camp Office at about 2 pm for Juma prayers and later flew to Karachi but the CJ remained the Camp Office.
(d) The Intelligence Chiefs remained with the CJ till 5.pm and showed him the evidence of reference which was collected by them.
(e) When the Chief Justice refused to resign, notifications for suspension of the Chief Justice, appointment of the Acting Chief Justice, oath taking of ACJ were issued and Supreme Judicial Council was convened.
(f) The ACJ took oath at about 5. pm and the SJC meeting took place at about 6.30 pm the same evening.
(g) the CJP was taken straight to residence and according to him remained under detention for four days.
Aitzaz argued the whole trouble started when the CJP refused to resign and said he would face the charges of misconduct and misuse of authority.
He contended that the entire plan of removal of CJP was premeditated, with malice, malafide for collateral purposes. He argued the court should , quash, dismiss and tear away the reference as ab initio since the Referring Authority itself had withdrawn charge of judicial misconduct and the documents annexed with the reference.
He described the reference against the CJP as the "mother" of more evils in future events. " there is no half way for the court, one side has to loose and one side had to win" he stressed. He said even if the Full Supreme Court restores the Chief Justice but sends the reference to Supreme Judicial Council for enquiry, the problem would not be solved.
In that case he would summon the President, the Prime Minister and Intelligence Chiefs as witnesses for cross examination, and if the SJC refused to call them, the matter would again come before the Supreme Court for a decision.
He said in this judicial battle, It is not the President or the Chief Justice who will win or loose rather it would be the Executive or the Judiciary which will win or loose. He will continue his arguments on Friday for about an hour before the court reserves or announces its judgement.
The 13 member full court headed by Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday hearing the CJP petition 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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