ISLAMABAD, 18 July 2007 — A 13-member Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Khalilur Rahman Ramday yesterday questioned the jurisdiction of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) to prevent Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry from performing his duties.
The top court was hearing Chaudhry’s petition challenging his removal from the Supreme Court.
The court asked Attorney General Sahibzada Makhdoom Ali Khan to explain under which law the Supreme Judicial Council was constituted, who selected judges, how judges were flown from other cities to Islamabad and who issued orders to the chief justice to appear before the SJC and under which law he was summoned.
The court also asked the attorney general to explain who ordered the meeting of the judicial panel during the late hours on March 9 and why was Chaudhry not given a hearing. The attorney general was further asked who prevented the chief justice from performing his duties.
Commenting on the accusation that Chaudhry used to avail special flights, Justice Ramday said, “Judges who were selected as the members of the judicial panel too were airlifted by special flights.
On numerous occasions Justice Ramday observed, “It’s a very complicated case and we have to determine whether the president or the Supreme Judicial Council were lawfully empowered to remove the chief justice without serving on him a legal show-cause notice.”
In response to one of the charges leveled against Chaudhry that he had traveled to some parts of Pakistan by special flights, Ramday observed, “If we are not wrong a few other judges traveled with the chief justice.”
The government on Monday withdrew the charge of misconduct against Chaudhry. The court was adjourned until today after the attorney general concluded his arguments. Chaudhry’s lawyer will wind up his arguments tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the Intelligence Bureau informed the top court that all the bugging devices had been removed from the chambers and residences of judges of the superior courts.
Musharraf Murder Plot
Dozens of people have been detained as authorities continue a probe into a recent possible assassination attempt on President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a security official said yesterday.
Musharraf was flying from a nearby air base on July 6 when shots rang out from a neighborhood that lay directly under the flight path.
“About two dozen people were detained for questioning and we gleaned some vital information from some of them,” said the senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
He said that it was still to be determined whether the president’s plane had been targeted. Those being interrogated include the owner of a house atop which two anti-aircraft guns and a light machine gun were discovered as well as a real estate agent who helped rent out the property, he said.
Asked whether any of the detained people included members of outlawed Pakistani militant groups, he said, “Who can do it? Of course terrorists.”
If confirmed, the attack would be at least the fourth attempt on Musharraf’s life since his decision to side with the United States in its war on terror enraged Taleban and Al-Qaeda-linked radicals in Pakistan.
It was not clear whether the incident was linked to the then-ongoing siege of Islamabad’s Red Mosque. More than 100 people, including a radical cleric, died when the mosque was overrun.
