Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry restored as Chief Justice of Pakistan

[ajpirzada]

How the troika reached the final decision




Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By Rauf Klasra

ISLAMABAD: The inside story of the troika meeting which finally prevailed upon a defiant President Asif Ali Zardari to restore the judges has been revealed by insiders who say the army chief urgently got intelligence estimates of the number of people in the long march which tilted the balance.

Intelligence reports about the numbers of charged participants accompanying Nawaz Sharif on his way to Islamabad Sunday night were used to “convince” a wavering President Asif Zardari to let Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani announce the immediate restoration of the ousted Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry without any condition.

The large number of long march participants reportedly played a major role even in a review of the secret understanding reached between PML-N and PPP camps — courtesy the US and UK.

According to this understanding, Iftikhar Chaudhry was to be restored for the time being and sent home after a few weeks along with the judges who have taken oath under the PCO as per the Charter of Democracy.

But this understanding had to be scrapped after the intelligence agencies reported that the situation was getting dangerous and it might spin out of control in case the participants managed to reach Islamabad. Thus it was decided to restore Chaudhry as CJ unconditionally.

The dramatic developments that led to the CJ’s restoration started taking place only after 11.30pm (Sunday) when PM Gilani and COAS General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani held crucial talks with President Zardari. Both were said to have spent significant time convincing Zardari to change his mind about the restoration of the chief justice.

Gilani, under mounting pressure from the political forces, civil society and the media to seize the moment, went to the Presidency with the determination to convince Zardari into taking a decision to ease the situation.

Insiders claimed that as the marchers crossed the Ravi bridge, a secret message was conveyed by the “establishment” to the Presidency that in case of trouble in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, army men would not fire on them.

The government must have an alternative plan to deal with any untoward situation, the Presidency was informed. The message also helped the president to take a quick decision on restoring Iftikhar Chaudhry, the sources revealed.

Subsequently, it is learnt, the troika meeting ended on a positive note. Both Gilani and Kayani were in favour of the ousted chief justice’s reinstatement, with the former committing to restore the judges. Kayani was reportedly surprised to see Gilani taking charge of the situation at the meeting and arguing forcefully with Zardari.

Gilani acknowledged the time had come for the PPP to honour the commitment of Benazir Bhutto on the one hand and defuse the explosive situation on the other. But the president was not convinced with the “rhetoric” of his PM, supported by the COAS.

According to credible information, as the meeting started, both the PM Gilani and General Kayani were found to be in strong favour of restoration of chief justice and were speaking the same language. PM Gilani took charge of the proceedings as he committed himself to restore the CJ. Gilani was said to be “straight, argumentative, firm and confident” during his interaction with President Zardari on the issue of restoration of the judiciary.

However, president was said to be not convinced with the “rhetoric” of his PM as it was nothing new for him. However, General Kayani openly sided with PM Gilani during the debate.

President Zardari was of the view that he had got reports from the Intelligence Bureau (IB), which had put the number of the marchers on the lower side. Mr Zardari was of the view that how could the government be forced to take the decision to restore the CJ only on the basis of a few thousand people accompanying former Prime Minister Nawaz.

He believed that the numbers of crowd would go down, as the procession would proceed during its 300 km long journey to Islamabad. Upon this, sources said, it was decided that instead of only relying on the report of IB, the best course could be to also seek guidance from the reports of Military Intelligence and ISI.

Consequently, the secret reports of these two secret intelligent agencies were immediately sought in the meeting. These secret reports clearly rejected the estimates of number of people given in the IB reports, as both the reports put the numbers on the alarmingly higher side with the observations that as the long march would proceed towards Islamabad, more people would continue to join and at one stage, it would become practically difficult for the administration to manage the charged crowd.

The sources said after consulting these three reports of the intelligence agencies, finally President Zardari agreed to let the prime minister announce the decision to restore the chief justice.

Once the decision was taken, the army chief left and then president Zardari met his top aides and conveyed the decision to all of them. He is said to have also brought the new development to the notice of the foreign powers before making them public, as the Foreign Office was directed to convey the decision to all the concerned powers.

The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Gilani, President Zardari, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Amin Fahim, Khursheed Shah, Dr Babar Awan, Farooq Naek and Qamar Zaman Kaira, which gave final touches to the decision.

President Zardari reportedly told them that now time to fulfil the pending promise of BB had come and he had decided to restore the chief justice. He however told these ministers that he needed to put the record straight that neither he had sacked CJ Iftikhar Chaudhry nor he had installed the incumbent CJ Abdul Hameed Dogar as both the steps were taken by General Musharraf.

So, Mr Zardari believed that PPP could not be held responsible for the whole judicial crisis in which country was plunged because of General Musharraf. The participants of the meeting were informed that CJ Dogar was retiring on March 21, so the best course could be to restore CJ Iftikhar.

The ministers told President Zardari that he should take the decision as he was the president of country and the party too. However, sources said these ministers also seriously criticized Sherry Rehman and Raza Rabbani as they believed that both had left the government when it needed them the most.

But sources said when the nation was about to hear the good news, one untoward incident took place at the end of this meeting when prime minister had left for the Prime Minister House to address the nation and the president was said to be in the wash room.

Chairman Senate Farooq Naek was said to have advised Rehman Malik — known for his obsession with the media coverage — that it would be better if he stayed away from the media at least for one month.

This “advice” was said to have provoked Rehman Malik as he challenged Farooq Naek that how could he advise him to stay away from the media. Malik rather asked Mr Naek was he (Rehman Malik) not a good-looking man or he was less intelligent than anyone else present there.

He rather offered to resign from the cabinet in case he was proved inefficient or less intelligent than anyone else. Qamar Zaman Kaira was said to have also backed the proposal of Farooq Naek that Rehman Malik should not appear on the media at least for a few weeks.

Rehman Malik entered a heated argument with his colleagues. When the situation started getting serious in the meeting, Farooq Naek tried to defuse it and told a fuming Malik that he was ready to take his comment back and if he liked then he should continue with his obsessive love for the media exposure on television channels.

How the troika reached the final decision

 

[Bane Blade]

My fear is that next President may be NS. Problem with NS is that he couldn't win a single NA seat outside of Punjab!

PML-N has won seats out of Punjab not many but they have and incase your eyes were shut when the electoral process was going on PML-N hardly campaigned for the election for they were wiling to boycott them after the Benazir incedent.

 

[Rafael]

PML-N has won seats out of Punjab not many but they have and incase your eyes were shut when the electoral process was going on PML-N hardly campaigned for the election for they were wiling to boycott them after the Benazir incedent.

further more, NS came back to pakistan only couple of days before the elections and this did effected his campaign alot!

 

[ajpirzada]

PPP got sympathy vote from everywhere. if u go back to 1998 or 97 elections, nawaz sharif got 2/3 majority. so sayin he cant win a seat outside punjab is quite naive. im not his big supporter but ya i would never underestimate him espacially after seein wat he did in the long march. definately he has become more mature after stayin in exile. even bainazir was actin much mature after comin back from exile. i guess all our leaders should spend some time in exile.

 

[Bane Blade]

Does anyone know if the Cheif justice of Pakistan will still hold the Suo Moto power?

 

[ajpirzada]

Does anyone know if the Cheif justice of Pakistan will still hold the Suo Moto power?

he does

 

[RabzonKhan]

Sleepless nights for Musharraf

Thursday, March 19, 2009
By Amir Mir

LAHORE: The restoration of the deposed superior court judges, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, may not be the end of the 24-month old controversy kicked off by General Pervez Musharraf’s Nov 3, 2007 coup against the judiciary.

Well informed circles close to Justice Chaudhry say once he resumes his duties as Chief Justice on March 21 after the retirement of Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, he is looking forward to carry on from where he left off before being sent home on November 3, 2007. Although many of General Musharraf’s post-November 3 controversial actions had been validated and reaffirmed by his handpicked apex court, some key issues like the proclamation of emergency through a Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) and petitions seeking annulment of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) are likely to be taken up by Justice Chaudhry once again.

Therefore, both Pervez Musharraf and Asif Zardari might be having sleepless nights nowadays given the fact that both had apparently given unannounced indemnity to each other in two phases - firstly by Musharraf before the elections and secondly by Zardari after the elections to cover up each others’ wrong doings. As Musharraf had introduced a presidential ordinance before the 2008 elections to help Zardari get rid of the corruption charges pending against him without facing a court trial, the latter had returned the favour by rejecting Nawaz Sharif’s demand to proceed against Musharraf on treason charges under Article 6 of the constitution for having staged a military coup in 1999 against an elected government.

To begin with, Justice Chaudhry’s close circles say, there is every possibility of his going for an immediate review of the three verdicts passed by Justice Dogar-led apex court on November 4, 2007, November 6, 2007 and February 14, 2008, validating Musharraf’s November 3 proclamation of emergency with a view to knocking these out. The review of these three judgments could be carried out under Article 184 (3) of the constitution, which pertains to the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and states: “Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 199, the Supreme Court shall, if it considers that a question of public importance with reference to the enforcement of any of the fundamental rights conferred by Chapter I of Part II is involved, have the power to make an order of the nature mentioned in the said Article”.

Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry’s close circles reminded that three months after being deposed by the Musharraf regime for the second time in five months, a defiant CJ had maintained in an open letter [dated January 30, 2008] addressed to the world leaders: “I am the constitutional Chief Justice of Pakistan and have already ruled that the November 3, 2007 actions by Musharraf were unconstitutional”. He further wrote: “There can be no democracy without an independent judiciary, and there can be no independent judge in Pakistan until the action of November 3, 2007 is reversed. Whatever the will of some desperate men, the struggle of the valiant lawyers and civil society of Pakistan will bear fruit. They are not giving up”.

Seven months later, Justice Chaudhry’s close circles recalled, the CJ had repeated his stance [on November 3, 2008] in his speech to a convention organised by the Rawalpindi High Court Bar Association by saying: “The November 3 verdict of a 7-member Supreme Court bench declaring General Musharraf’s November 3, 2007 actions unconstitutional and illegal still holds”. He had then described the incumbent Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar as a self-styled adjudicator who had validated Musharraf’s November 3 proclamation of emergency as well as a Provisional Constitutional Order.

Musharraf’s action made the continued functioning of the superior courts subject to the judges taking a fresh oath under the PCO.

However, in an unprecedented move in the history of Pakistan, a majority of the judges declined to take oath under the PCO. They were consequently ousted and General Musharraf achieved his objective of ridding himself of non-compliant judges. The move came only 12 days before the expiry of Musharraf’s first tenure as the president and while an 11-judge bench of the Supreme Court was in a weekend recess in its hearing of challenges to his election for another five-year presidential term, on grounds of his army office.

According to Justice Chaudhry’s close circles, the most vital and equally tricky issue to confront the CJ after his reinstatement would be the November 3 action. As a matter of fact, a seven-member bench headed by Justice Chaudhry had rejected the proclamation of emergency and the issuance of the PCO on the same evening - November 3, 2007, before being sent home. The court order had further restrained the Chief of Army Staff, corps commanders, staff officers and civil and military officers from acting under the decree issued by Musharraf.

The judges restrained Musharraf from taking actions contrary to the independence of the judiciary and asked the judges of the Supreme Court and the high courts, including their chief justices, not to take an oath under the PCO or follow any other extra-constitutional step.

Headed by CJ Chaudhry, the bench that handed down the unanimous two-page order consisted of Justice Rana Bhagwandas, Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice Nasirul Mulk, Justice Raja Fayyaz and Justice Ghulam Rabbani. Anticipating something unusual, the seven judges had decided to stay in the Supreme Court building till late afternoon on a day when the court never assembles.

It otherwise would not have been possible for them to pass the order. “We feel the government has no ground or reason to take extra-constitutional steps, particularly for the reasons being published in newspapers that a high-profile case is pending and is not likely to be decided in government’s favour, although the matter is still pending,” the order said. The order had been issued on an application of Supreme Court Bar Association president Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan.

The very next day, on November 04, 2007, the new Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar over-ruled the order issued by Justice Chaudhry, annulling the emergency imposed by Musharraf despite the fact that more than seven judges of the Supreme Court were required to reverse the restraining order. Dogar, who was sworn in by Musharraf as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court shortly after the imposition of emergency, said the verdict of Chaudhry and eight other judges of the apex court was defunct and null and void. Interestingly, a statement issued by the Supreme Court on the night of November 3, 2007 said the decision against the emergency by Justice Chaudhry and seven other judges was “not given by a valid court”.

However, it was the Attorney General of Pakistan Malik Mohammad Qayyum who had advised the Presidency that the decision of the deposed chief justice should be struck down by the full court so that it could not be taken up in future. Subsequently, on November 6, 2007, hardly an hour after Musharraf appointed five new judges of the Supreme Court, an eight-member full court declared as null and void the November 3, 2007 decision of the seven-member apex court bench. Chief Justice Dogar ruled that the verdict by the seven-member bench came after the declaration of emergency when they had ceased as judges of the superior courts. The petitioner in the case was none other than Attorney General Malik Qayyum.

On February 14, 2008, three and a half months later, the Supreme Court headed by Justice Dogar, while deciding two separate constitutional petitions No 87-88 of 2007, challenging the proclamation of emergency on 3rd November 2007, the Provincial Constitution Order No 1 of 2007 and the oath of office (judges) Order, 2007, had once again validated all the extra-constitutional steps taken by Army Chief cum President General Pervez Musharraf on November 3, 2007.

Interestingly, the verdict stated that unfortunately some members of the superior judiciary by way of judicial activism transgressed the constitutional limits and ignored the well-entrenched principle of judicial restraint. In the process, the verdict said, these judges rendered the state machinery, particularly legislative and executive branches of the government, paralysed and nugatory. The apex court verdict further stated that all acts and actions taken for the orderly running of the state and for the advancement and good of the people are also validated.

Musharraf’s action was validated by the apex court despite the fact that in an interview to the BBC on November 17, 2007, he himself had admitted that his action was illegal. Taking strong exception to the growing criticism about him in the West regarding his decision about the imposition of emergency, he demanded an explanation for his portrayal in the western media in recent months, saying, “Did I go mad? Or suddenly, my personality changed? Am I Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? Have I done anything constitutionally illegal? Yes, I did it on November 3 [referring to imposition of the emergency rule]. But did I do it before? Not once.”

However, whatever Musharraf says, Justice Chaudhry’s close circles insist, the first issue to be taken up by him for review under Article 184(3) of the 1973 Constitution would be the validity of the November 3, 2007 action by Musharraf.

 

[Omar1984]

 

[SSGPA1]

PML-N has won seats out of Punjab not many but they have and incase your eyes were shut when the electoral process was going on PML-N hardly campaigned for the election for they were wiling to boycott them after the Benazir incedent.

NS knew that the sympathy vote for PPPP will change the equation and this is why NS suggested to boycott.

As far as the Election Commission of Pakistan is concerned PML (N) has not won any NA seat outside Punjab.

The guy couldn't even enter Karachi or Quetta to show his face let alone a speach!

 

[Awesome]

NS knew that the sympathy vote for PPPP will change the equation and this is why NS suggested to boycott.

As far as the Election Commission of Pakistan is concerned PML (N) has not won any NA seat outside Punjab.

The guy couldn't even enter Karachi or Quetta to show his face let alone a speach!

While Karachi is dominated by MQM, He'll be winning from Balochistan and NWFP this time around. Him or his allies.

MQM doesn't really win anything. Do you believe they are getting 140,000 votes with the next guy getting only 10,000?

You know how polling happens in Karachi? Literally MQM workers man the polling booths. When you go there, they will take you through the steps of filling your name, getting ink on your thumb nail and then tell you ok you can go home now without voting Because there's someone else who already voted for you.

 

[Bane Blade]

NS knew that the sympathy vote for PPPP will change the equation and this is why NS suggested to boycott.

As far as the Election Commission of Pakistan is concerned PML (N) has not won any NA seat outside Punjab.

The guy couldn't even enter Karachi or Quetta to show his face let alone a speach!

Atleast don't blatantly lie.

http://www.ecp.gov.pk/NAPosition.pdf

 

[SSGPA1]

Atleast don't blatantly lie.

http://www.ecp.gov.pk/NAPosition.pdf

Thank you for correcting. This was an honest mistake.

So NS won 5 seats from NWFP and party supporting Musharraf won a min of 5 seats from each province.

This is a result when Musharraf's popularity was low.

Does it mean that MQM will become a national party if it wins 1 or 2 seats from another province?

Dude your guy claims to be a national leader and point is that he has emerged as a provincial leader like Altaf Hussain.

 

[SSGPA1]

While Karachi is dominated by MQM, He'll be winning from Balochistan and NWFP this time around. Him or his allies.

Doesn't matter because those will still not get him majority in any province except Punjab.

MQM doesn't really win anything. Do you believe they are getting 140,000 votes with the next guy getting only 10,000?

You know how polling happens in Karachi? Literally MQM workers man the polling booths. When you go there, they will take you through the steps of filling your name, getting ink on your thumb nail and then tell you ok you can go home now without voting Because there's someone else who already voted for you.

I agree with your assesment however, the fact is that people have no other choice. If tehre is no compaigning from the likes of IK, NS etc, MQM will keep wining.

BTW, have you seen Karachi lately? It seems MQM has done a lot to improve traffic. I strongly believe in giving credit where due.

 

[Bane Blade]

Thank you for correcting. This was an honest mistake.

So NS won 5 seats from NWFP and party supporting Musharraf won a min of 5 seats from each province.

This is a result when Musharraf's popularity was low.

Does it mean that MQM will become a national party if it wins 1 or 2 seats from another province?

Dude your guy claims to be a national leader and point is that he has emerged as a provincial leader like Altaf Hussain.

and when was the last time Altaf hussein had 2/3rd majority in the parliament?

 

[RAOSaifullah]

pakistan are facing so many serious problem.iftakhar chaudry should not disturb the previous issues.