Umar Ata Bandial on Tuesday warned the executive from interfering in the Supreme Court’s affairs.
islamabad_Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Umar Ata Bandial has remarked that the CJP can neither be asked to withdraw from a bench nor his or any other’s judge’s powers can be trimmed by just levelling allegations against him,
The CJP made the remarks as a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court resumed on Tuesday hearing of four pleas challenging the formation of a judicial commission led by Justice Qazi Faez Isa to probe audio leaks.
The bench is comprised of CJP Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Shahid Waheed.
As the hearing began, Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan made the first move as he took to the rostrum and read out loud the government’s objections to the five-judge bench hearing the case. He also read out the apex court’s order issued after the previous hearing.
Then, the CJP asked the AGP: “What point do you want to speak on? You are missing one thing.”
As the AGP stared at the chief judge, the CJP pointedly said the post of the chief justice was “constitutional”. “No one can assume the charge of chief justice on the basis of an assumption. The CJP appoints a caretaker CJP if he is not available. In this case, the chief justice was available but wasn’t informed about the formation of the commission,” Justice Bandial observed, adding “Present your arguments on these points,” he said and directed the AGP to understand the law before reading out previous judgments issued by the court.
Mansoor Awan said he wanted to first present arguments on the bench formation. The CJP intervened “If you raise the point that three of these judges are controversial then you will have to explain the basis on which you assumed that there is conflict among three of us?”
The CJP further remarked “I want you to focus on the more important issue instead of others,” he remarked, noting that another pressing matter was the freedom of judiciary.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.