The Lahore High Court Bar Association has sent a reference to Supreme Judicial Council against Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and three other judges - Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Khilji Arif. LHCBA President Abid Saqi, and other office bearers made this announcement in an emergency press conference here on Friday.
They said lawyers wanted the courts to do their work in accordance with law and the constitution. He accused the CJP and his associate judges of trampling the constitutional norms in various ways and making a wrongful use of contempt of court law. He alleged that these judges of the apex court had changed the election schedule for President of Pakistan. He also alleged that Supreme Court was no longer a court but had become a political field. He claimed that these judges were using the Supreme Court to snub their opponents. According to him, these judges had misused their powers in Arsalan Iftikhar case.
He said the bar had also the right to do politics if the judiciary involved itself in the politics. "Every citizen has a political agenda and he works in its directions. Likewise, we also have a political agenda," Saqi admitted while answering a question that whether the bar was playing in the hands of any political party. He said under section 5 of Article 209 any citizen could send a reference. He added there was no deadline in the constitution regarding hearing of the reference; however the SJC was bound to conduct the hearing.