Lawyers, the CJP and Musharraf
AAMER RAZA A. KHAN
The Nation, March 22, 2007
Overwhelmed by feelings of anguish and foreboding, I consider it my bounden duty to objectively record recent events.
Without going into the question as to whether a Reference can be moved against the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), it would be profitable to recollect events as they unfolded, and then to draw the inevitable inferences therefrom- as actions speak louder than words, whether they are uttered by the General President or by his minions Wasi or Durrani.
The CJP was met at Army House by the Army Chief, in full uniform before noon on that fateful Friday, after having been kept waiting for a considerable time. On being allowed audience, be was duly photographed and then told of allegations against him and advised to resign, failing which he was threatened with removal. Generously allowing him time to think over the consequences, the Army Chief accompanied with his Prime Minister in Waiting, left to offer Friday prayers and to seek guidance from God.
Before all this, the Chief Justice of the Lahore and the Sindh High Courts had been flown in by special plane to Islamabad, and the three senior most Supreme Court Judges alerted to remain available in the Supreme Court premises. Who could summon the Supreme Judicial Council? Certainly not the Army Chief.
Upon the refusal of the CJP to fall in line, despite forcible detention in the Army House of well over four hours, be was allowed to leave, but on entering Islamabad was waylaid and virtually arrested by a lowly police officer and then forcibly confined together with his entire family in a room of his house, which was swarming with scores of security personnel. All contacts with the outside world were snapped, and every approach to his house barricaded. Even a Supreme Court Judge wishing to see him was turned away, and then the Army Chief announced that the CJP had been suspended.
The Supreme Judicial Council dutifully met and started immediate processing of an incomplete Reference. And now the Government of Pakistan somersaulted and announced that the CJP was "non-functional". However the Supreme Judicial Council referred to him as the CJP and asked him to respond to an incomplete Reference sent over to him. He was not allowed to meet anyone including his lawyers. The Pakistan Flag on his residence was taken down, his official vehicles towed away, his personal staff held incommunicado, his official files removed and in these conditions he was directed to appear and answer before the Supreme Judicial Council.
When in obedience to the "warrants", he emerged outside his house on foot, accompanied by his wife, they was waylaid, roughed up physically and the CJP was caught hold of by his hair and shoved into a police car by police officers. And the Army Chief says that all this was done by the lowly functionaries themselves and not at his behest. Does he expect anyone to believe this?
It was not the filing of the Reference that upset all decent citizens and the legal community, but it was the manner in which the CJP was hounded and mistreated, that left no alternative for the legal community, but to rise up in protest. The humiliation of the CJP was a personal affront to every lawyer and a sock in the face of the tottering judicial system. If allowed unchallenged this will be the beginning of the end of civilized society in Pakistan and of the third pillar of the State. Earlier the President, the Prime Minister, the Parliament and Dr. A. Q. Khan have already been set right and devastated.
The lawyers are not protesting against the Reference. They are up in arms against the savage attack on the judicial system, which they are honour bound to preserve and protect. Similarly should be the Honourable Judges. They are yet to respond to the call. And what says the Attorney General?
Now the Army Chief says that the CJP has been sent on "forced leave". First he was "suspended", and then rendered "non-functional" and now has been sent on forced leave. All steps unconstitutional and void, and a direct assault on the judicial system. And Musharaf says he acted on advice of the Jadoogar. Did he also not advise Ayub and Yahyah and Zia? We have suffered long, and enough is enough.
The legal community has shown admirable unity and resolve. The last time it did so, nothing could hinder it, and the people triumphed. Ruffled by the unity and resentment shown by the legal community all over the country, the rulers first tried to cow them down by extreme savagery and brute force. To further suppress dissent they followed it up by attacking the media. This has been done before too. But right always prevails. Those who refuse to learn from the past and from history do so at their own peril. Pakistan was created under the political leadership of a lawyer, and I firmly believe that it shall stand preserved and protected under the selfless leadership of the lawyers, who stand resolved to overcome all obstacles, along with the brave people of Pakistan.
Musharraf and the legal system cannot co-exist. Neither can Musharaf and CJ Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. Have your choice, and go for it.
The writer is former President, Lahore High Court Bar Association, and has served as a judge of the Lahore High Court
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