Attorney General Sardar Muhammad Latif Khosa on Monday said the appointment of the chief justice is a prerogative of the President irrespective of seniority of judges. Talking to media prior to 8th Roll Signing Ceremony of Advocates of Supreme Court, Khosa said that Justice Sardar Raza is the senior most judge after Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and he should have to be the next CJ.
'But the President has the prerogative to appoint any judge as CJ as there are other factors which are not known to everyone being classified,' Khosa said. To a question regarding the fate of National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) the AG said that it was for six months and all cases decided under the ambit of NRO are past and closed transaction.
'The NRO has lost its utility and has become ineffective,' Khosa maintained. While responding to a question regarding fate of deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Khosa said there cannot be two Chief Justices at one time. He referred the invitation Farooq H Naek, Federal Minister for Law and Justice for talks to reach an amicable solution of the issue.
The AG said that National Accountability Bureau (NAB) law would be brought in the parliament for abolition in order to end the political victimisation as was agreed by the PPP and PML-N through Charter of Democracy (COD). He said that PPP is committed to fulfilling its promises made in COD, in addition other political parties including PML-Q have shown their consent in this respect.
Khosa said that NAB was included in 6th Schedule by the former President Pervez Musharraf, therefore, consent of President Asif Ali Zardari was necessary which he had given.
The Roll signing ceremony which enrolled about 159 new advocates as advocates of the Supreme Court including six female advocates ended in haste as a female, Gulzar Begum Butt from Lahore registered her protest and said to the Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar that he was not her legitimate CJ. The ceremony concluded with a short speech of Chief Justice, which was delivered after launch.