ISLAMABAD, 16 September 2007 — Retired Lt. Gen. Hamid Javaid, President Pervez Musharraf’s chief of staff, met Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry here yesterday. This was the first indirect contact between the Musharraf aide and Chaudhry after March 9 when the president had suspended him, sources said.
Supreme Court Registrar Faqir Hussain told journalists that the chief of staff met the chief justice at latter’s request. Hussain said, “Few vacancies of high courts judges were to be filled therefore the chief justice sought assistance from the president through his chief of staff. The president appoints judges to the higher courts.
“Nothing else was discussed during the meeting. It was one-point agenda to discuss the pending cases in the high courts, and the meeting was called by the chief justice,” Hussain was quoted as saying. When contacted, a spokesman for the president’s office said there was “nothing to add” to the statement made by the registrar.
However, analysts see it as a move by the president to “befriend” the chief justice who has been giving tough time to the government by his decisions. “Let’s see what the presidency and the chief justice have to say about the meeting but for the time being it’s seen as a hand of friendship,” said political analyst Nasim Zehra.
The top court last month allowed former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to come back to the country, ordered immediate production of the missing peoples and was also hearing a case against Musharraf’s re-election as president for another five years as well as a number of cases against Musharraf for keeping two posts — presidency and chief of the army staff.
The very day Javed met the chief justice, the Supreme Court clubbed six petitions filed by different political parties against re-election and dual office by Musharraf.
Chaudhry, pulling himself out, constituted a larger, nine-member bench of senior judges of the court, to be headed by Justice Rana Bhagwandas, to hear these petitions from tomorrow. Earlier, the chief justice headed a seven-member bench. According to political and legal experts, while the government did not raise any objection to the hearing of these petitions by the chief justice, he decided not to preside over this bench so that no question of his personal bias against the president could be raised.
In their petitions, Muttaheda Majlis-i-Amal chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad and Tehreek-e-Insaaf chief Imran Khan have contended that holding of the offices of president and chief of the army staff by the same person is in violation of the constitution and that Musharraf is not eligible to contest the coming presidential election.
The government says that Musharraf’s term as president expires on Nov. 15, 2007 and he would continue to hold office until his successor enters upon the office. While admitting the petitions on Sept. 6, the court had said in its order that “since several constitutional issues have been raised in the petition, and the government has declined to file a written reply, three advocates, Sen. S.M. Zafar, Abdul Hafeez Pirzada and Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan are appointed as amicus curiae to assist the court for interpretation of different articles of the constitution and provisions of law.”
