Pakistan Supreme Court's Bold Stance

CJP case shouldn’t go Tamizuddin case’s way, Justice Ramday remarks
* Says president should have looked into substance of reference before sending it to SJC
By Mohammad Kamran
Daily Times, May 23, 2007

ISLAMABAD: Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday remarked on Tuesday that it would be unfortunate if the Supreme Court’s judgment in the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) case was viewed like the Federal Court’s verdict in the Maulvi Tamizuddin case.

“God forbid that the SC decision in this case should meet the fate of the Maulvi Tamizuddin case,” Justice Ramday said in response to state counsel Malik Qayyum’s remarks that the CJP case was the most significant in Pakistan’s history after the Maulvi Tamizuddin case.

Justice Ramday, head of the 13-member full court hearing a constitutional petition by CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and 22 other identical petitions, asked Qayyum not to refer to the Maulvi Tamizuddin case, saying that it was now referred to embarrass the court, BBC Urdu reported. Maulvi Tamizuddin, president of the first constituent assembly of Pakistan, had moved the Singh High Court (SHC) against dissolution of the assembly by Governor General Ghulam Mohammad. SHC Chief Justice Sir George Constantine restored the assembly, but the governor general challenged the decision in the federal court, where Chief Justice Mohammad Munir set aside the SHC’s decision and upheld the dissolution of the assembly in March 1955 on technical grounds.

Justice Ramday said that before sending the reference to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), President Pervez Musharraf should have made sure his reference against the CJP had substance.