A depose Peshawar High Court (PHC) judge, Jahanzeb Rahim, on Tuesday moved Supreme Court for a review of its July 31 verdict declaring November 3, Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) and promulgation of emergency as illegal and unconstitutional.
"The petition is being filed without any qualm or concern for any pensionary or other allied benefits, to which the petitioner is or would be entitled by virtue of his service as a permanent judge of the PHC," the petition moved by senior Advocate Naeem Bokhari on behalf of the judge stated.
The judge is one of the 76 superior court judges, who had to leave their offices after Supreme Court declared the appointments of judges since November 3, 2007 following consultation with the unconstitutional chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, as illegal and declared that they seize to exist as judges with immediate effect.
Can a judicial verdict, howsoever historic it may be, accepted as valid and fair if it violates the two cardinal principles of natural justice namely Audi Alteram Partem and Nemo Judex In Causa Sua, the petitioner questioned. "If the 14-judge order was against PCO judges, then why 76 judges who had not taken oath under the PCO were sent home," he wondered, adding that they were not even made party or issued notices during the hearing.
Whether the judges who handed down the July 31 verdict were not acting as judges in their own cause in violation of a cardinal and fundamental principle of natural justice adding should not these judges refuse to hear the case in the light of paragraph 1 of Article IV of the Code of Conduct for Judges which requires judges to decline resolutely to act in a case involving his own interest.