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CJP freezes Bank Accounts & assets of Sikander Jatoi the father of Shahrukh Jatoi who has allegedly murdered Shahzeb Khan “In memory of Shahzeb Khan” – CJP has instructed the IG Sindh to arrest murderers ASAP or else appear without his uniform on Monday.
This is a very powerful message being sent by CJP to get immediate justice
CJP also applauded Shahzeb Khanzada for his journalistic efforts. – shared on Facebook via Awab Alvi
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Babar Sattar pens a very balanced article on the recent CJP crisis known as Family Gate, which involves Dr. Arsalan Chaudhry, the son of Chief Justice Iftikhae Chaudhry, Babar Sattar writes – The chief justice did the courageous thing by taking suo motu notice of the clandestine affair between Malik Riaz and his son Arsalan Iftikhar that had spread like wildfire through a crafty whispering campaign. And after putting the judicial wheels in motion to hold to account his son and Malik Riaz, and throwing his weight behind affixing the liability of the two in a transparent and impartial manner in an open court, he did the right thing by recusing himself from the cas – Read more Kleptocracy in focus – Babar Sattar
2 comments Yousaf Raza Gillani
Prime Minister of Pakistan
Presidential Suite
Churchill Hotel
London
Sub: While You Were Away
Dear Yousaf
I pray this finds you in greatest of health and highest of spirits.
It felt really good that although your trip must have been packed with various activities, meetings, etc., purely in our national interest, you decided to take along 90 most deserving individuals who have worked so very hard for long. Indeed the development which has taken place during your tenor is exemplary and those individuals must have needed a break.
While you are away, we, here, are also having a wonderful time and I thought it would only be fair to keep you abreast so that there is not a moment during your trip that you think about what is happening back home and worry about it.
As I stood waiting for a bus at the stop amidst the routine hustle and bustle of life while the heat was killing me, a bus came to an almost stop and the damn driver decided to press the accelerator. Not his fault! Another bus of the same route had pulled up and you know very well that situation becomes a life and death situation for both the drivers. As a result, three poor women fell while a few, while trying to get out of the way, tripped over the fallen women and got injured. Can you imagine, right then, as I watched, a couple of young men came and pretended to help the women get up while they both had guns and conveniently decided to rob these women off of the very few currency bills they had. You know me well! I just couldn’t just stand and watch. I tried to stop these men so one of them turned around and hit me on the head with his gun. I bled a little and some good souls took me to the hospital. Just a few stitched and I was up and about. But you know what, as I was being treated in the hospital, I felt immediate peace as I thought of you. I could just feel the pleasure you must have felt flying in that very special airplane and then being received in London in about 25 to 30 odd most expensive fleet of cars. I am sure they were air-conditioned! Were they? I have heard the roads are also like carpet and you hardly feel the car being driven. I could just feel you and the 90 people who went with you, and I tell you, all my pain went away. I just thought to myself, those who work hard for me and my nation and serve the country in the manner you and those 90 people have, deserve to be treated like kings. The feeling took over me and I almost forgot all the pain I had gone through.
5 comments Considering the deteriorating situation in Pakistan, a group of citizens Movement for De-Weaponisation have started an effort to lobby for ways to help de-weaponize Karachi and also Pakistan, it is undoubtedly a long and portracted effort, but it is our core belief that the initiative must be taken to help cleanse Karachi of its stockpiles of weapons that are used to kill its very own citizens. As a first step in the effort an appeal has been filed with the Supreme Court to lobby for de-weaponisation of Karachi to become a party to the ongoing Suo Moto Hearing on Karachi’s Violence
Mr. Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry
September 6, 2011
Honourable Chief Justice
Supreme Court of Pakistan
Sub: Appeal for complete De-weaponisation of Karachi
Your Honour,
Violence, confrontation and polarization, especially in Karachi, have caused misery and destroyed the life, liberty and spirit of our people. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan states that over a thousand persons were killed in Karachi in the first six months of 2011. More than 600 others were killed in July and August making this the bloodiest year ever.
Armed gangs of land-grabbers and mafias have exploited the chaos. It is however generally felt that the real ownership of this horrible game of death and destruction lies with the powerful political, religious and criminal groups.
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125 comments Guest blog by Barrister Amjad Malik
16 December 2010 Supreme Court order on NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) has shattered the ruling govt which was standing on the 4 pillars of this barter orchestrated by military & Pentagon , USA &UK and (PPP) Pak people party leadership which is clutching and hanging on to a straw now. Instead of whole heartedly, understanding the tenacity of situation and implementing the order by realigning politically based on reality, the leadership went for hit and run ditto of their predecessor General Musharraf who sacked the chief justice who was considering a petition on his Presidential election in military uniform.
Same is the case with PPP govt which is willing to lock horns with the judiciary and is willing to wipe out the whole political democratic dispensation if the buck comes to shove and the issue comes to their govt’s fall. They do not wish to leave as corrupt but be drummed out with a bang as victims and history tells victims reappear in Pakistani politics. Govt is in between rock and a hard place, either to digest, accept and implement the order of 17 superior court judges and sack a few loyalists who are wanted by NAB enquiry or stall the matter, seek refuge under political dispensation and chalk out a settlement with its foes and get the gunners out of the ring, though a wishful thinking devoid of public sentiments.
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90 comments by Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim
We are again faced with a judicial crisis – not a bonafide crisis but a crisis created for ulterior reasons.
Ostensibly the crisis is the elevation of chief justice for the Lahore High Court in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the elevation of the next senior most judge Justice Saquib Nasir, as acting Chief Justice of Lahore High Court (a la Zia ul Haq style). Being of the view that more harm is done by ignoring seniority, which opens the door for exercise of discretion in principle, I am against seniority being ignored, particularly in judiciary.
My first reaction, therefore, was that the appointment of Chief Justice Lahore High Court to the Supreme Court and elevation of the next senior-most judge as Lahore High Court Chief Justice was justified. I had assumed that in accordance with the Article 177 of the constitution, these appointments were made by the president after consultation with the Chief Justice of Pakistan, and that the president was bound by such consultations.
Was the Chief Justice of Pakistan even consulted?
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49 comments 
After a lapse of over two years, today a full bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan came through with a historic judgment declaring the 2007 National Reconciliatory Ordinance null and void. It must be recalled that the NRO was the mastermind of the then President of Pakistan General Pervaiz Musharraf who in October 2007 orchestrated this pact with the exiled PPP leader Benazir Bhutto in an attempt to negotiate his own extended stay on the Presidential seat of power and in this process pardoned most of the corrupt criminals whom he himself detested so vehemently in his autobiography a few months earlier all in the name of political compromise. Since then history stands witness to have watched the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the people of Pakistan stood embarrassingly dumbfounded as one of the most corrupt politician Mr. Asif Ali Zardari snuck through the back doors of diplomacy to land into the Presidency of Pakistan.
Today the year-old restored judiciary stood strong to declare the NRO null and void, a short order issued outlined some important aspect of this new judgment but the exact specification and its affect on the Presidency remains to be ironed out. But it might be in the interest of Pakistan to not embarrass and ridicule Asif Ali Zardari and the Presidency any further and it might serve us all well to settle for a negotiated compromise, possibly having him to hand over most of the illegally amassed wealth back into the national treasury in lieu of his respect and freedom
Comments Off on Judicial Taliban Lawyers have emerged as a great force in Pakistan who carries weight in the future law making and day to day running of the judiciary as well as executive in the country. Pakistan’s short history is full of lawyer’s contributions and in particular judges who never bow before a dictator to take oath under any PCO and preferred to go home honourably.
In any adversarial system, there is a lawyer for and against and a judge hears the case, decides on facts and law giving confidence to both parties on the ‘judgement’ he is about to give on its merits. On the day, a judge has to dispense justice, and of course justice needs to be seen to be done, and if judgement is known in advance, it does not meet the norms of justice. Recent events in Pakistan post liberation of judiciary has given an impression as if lawyers have a carte blanche and as if they are not willing to tolerate the other side view, I hope I am wrong. That is, and it will be dangerous for the promotion of tolerance, rule of law and good governance leading to true democracy as there is always the other side view and the story.
I have picked up two issues where there is a risk of miscarriage of justice and potential threat of the other party loosing chance of ever having a fair trial. In the case of 4 May 2007 lawyers procession in Sahiwal, in Punjab, which was intercepted by Police on orders of its superiors. A case has been registered against district police officer and others, but open alarming statements are being made by top judicial leadership for accelerating the process by doing a quick justice with warnings that someone else will do the job suo moto. No lawyer is willing to represent the said officer in the whole of District Multan before Anti terrorist court judge, which is an undesirable development for the profession as any accused is ‘innocent until proven guilty.
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7 comments Mr Shakil Jafri editor of The Financial Daily asked me to reproduce as an article what I had written on CJ meeting Richard Holbrooke. With the intention to expand on these few paragraphs I chanced upon some reflections of a past judge which I added to my statement and am reproducing it below.
Members of the Judiciary are supposed to stay aloof from social and political contacts. In this context let me quote from a speech delivered by Justice Dorab Patel at the Cornelius Society in Lahore in 1995. Justice Patel was a dissenting judge in the Bhutto case and had refused to take oath on General Zia’s PCO. He states that the judiciary in Pakistan inherited from the long line of judges, British and Indian, traditions of service, of learning and scholarship, of integrity, financial and intellectual, and of social aloofness.
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55 comments There is a news item which may go unnoticed that the Chief Justice of Pakistan had a meeting with Mr Richard Holbrooke in his chambers on Friday.
We as members of the civil society have struggled long and hard for his restoration and we continue to respect the Supreme Court, but for matters of dignity and norms the Chief Justice should not have met a political official of the US Government, which has been responsible for kidnappings and ‘externments’ from Pakistan to say the least. A large number of cases were heard by the Chief Justice himself before and are still pending in which the US government has clearly been accused and implicated. Even the issue of encroachment of Pakistan’s sovereignty, and drone attacks in violation of the same and of our basic rights, can come up for hearing at the Supreme Court.
A statement made out by the Registrar is a clumsy effort to cover up the issue when he said that ‘Matters relating to judicial reforms as per national judicial policy and the whole judicial structure of Pakistan were discussed‘.
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10 comments Guest blog by Abira Ashfaq via her Note on Facebook
I just returned from a wedding and I got an icky feeling about the lawyer leaders. I saw some there. I caught a glimpse of Aitzaz, but before I could get my glamor shot with him, he had shot off to another function. I support the movement and its leadership. I support the support they got from the roots, and the movement’s progressive thrust. But there is an ickiness, and I know these leaders aren’t the radical, or even the clean hearted hippies I wish them to be. In fact some of them have only recently reignited that radical spark form the students’ movement of the 60s after years of real estate work. Some of them have vested interests. But I already knew that, and its not naivety that you accept flawed individuals, but pragmatism that you suspend your judgment as they invigorate a movement — as leaders. And learn. Hence, CJ as a symbol, as a trigger, as a mascot, as an illustration of resistance is fine – an impeccable judge or fashion model he may not be – but I’ll take the missing persons cases and applaud him anyway.
So I reserve my judgment, and hope that institutional changes are made, and the good decisions keep us afloat. The movement won, and the people are happy. But not really.
The judges were restored, but there is a constitutional problem that’ll make your head spin. As a friend in the movement tells me, there are 4 categories of possibly illegal judges – the level of their illegality depends on when the took the jinxed oath. 1) those who were judges on Nov 2 and accepted the PCO on Nov 3; 2) the new appointees under Mush; 3) the new appointees under Zardari; 4)those amongst the 43 judges of the Nov 2 who held out for months, and then when the movement waned, they took a cynical fresh oath.
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1 comment The national flag hoisting ceremony was performed at the residence of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry at Judges’ Enclave Islamabad today. In the ceremony two flags were hoisted outside the residence of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. The two flags unfurled on behalf of the civil society and the lawyers.
Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan announced the names of the persons who would hoist the flag. The names include Shaharyar Awan, the son of Imdad Awan Shaheed, Dr Israr Shah who lost his legs in the bomb blast on July 17, 2007. Civil society activist Tahira Abdullah, minorities leader J. Salik, Jaidev Sharma, Jamal Mir, Muhammad Naveed Mushtaq, mother of student leader Samad Khurram, Ali Asghar Khan, Hasil Bizenjo, representatives from media included Mazhar Abbas, Talat Hussain, Hamid Mir & Asima Shirazi.
Naheed Khan and Safdar Abbasi, two close aides of People’s Party chairperson Shaheed Benazir Bhutto represented her.
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15 comments Guest Blog by Amjad Malik
On 28 March 2008, when Chief Justice Chowdhary visited Mr. Zardari to pay condolences over the death of Be Nazir Bhuttoo, the writer wrote as following, “It’s an ill advice of half lawyer half politician leaders who sometimes are trapped in between party loyalty and the cause of independence of judiciary and forget that judge’s reinstatement is not an issue at all, the issue is their complete autonomy and independence. With this speed the way things are developing, we may get the jobs of those judges back but the process may affect the capacity of top judge to dispense justice on equality basis”.
The writer in his thesis recommended to form a committee and wrote, “People of Pakistan did not lay their lives to see a judge visiting the rulers which may seem an exercise to clear reservations or settle terms in order to seek his job back, its vice versa people want the rulers to come at the door step of the top judge who must be acknowledged for his steadfastness, bold stand and bravery and masses do not want the reinstatement of justice Choudhary, if it is not with full pride and honour, but they want to see the restoration of the prestige of the office of the chief justice who was detained with family, ill treated, and mal handled by state functionaries and law enforcement segments. It will be quite in the interest of ruling party to take the lawyers struggle down by slowly defusing the popular slogan of reinstatement and or bending the top man, however with wisdom, consultation and pride these tactics can be defused and jurist committee is a step towards right direction”. Though my writing went beyond notice and we had a long march without results. On the fall of long March 08, the writer on 16 June expressed his views and wrote in his column that, “ Lawyers are different from others only because they consult, take advice from seniors and agree to disagree on all major issues of principle. It also gives a lesson that with fiery speeches you may get applause but judiciary does not get independence. It requires sheer political will, joint collaboration and consultation in the national interest, wisdom and sacrifice which is pre requisite to translate this dream into a reality. May be consultation is the key which needs to be mastered in coming days by lawyers”.
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39 comments Guest Blog by SM
In his recent article, Lawyers’ Iftikhar: A Messiah Or A Pawn?, written on Monday January 26, Ahmed Quraishi has committed a crucial cause and effect mistake while recounting the events related to the historic lawyers’ movement and the de-facto Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. This article aims to expose the misinterpreted or intentionally distorted historical events.
13 comments A Casual Look….
By Barrister Ali K.Chishti
Asif Zardari’s politics of reconciliation took him to the doors of a 120 yard head quarters of MQM who had a bitter relationship with the PPP because of Benazir Bhutto’s extension of the infamous Operation Cleanup apart from the Sindhi-Mohajir or Rural-Urban Divide in Sindh.
The message was clear, “let’s forgive and forget” for the betterment of Sindh and Pakistan and start a new democratic Pakistan where each political party accepts each-other’s mandate. Asif Zardari also went on to visit the grave of Altaf Hussain’s brother to offer prayers – he was warmly welcomed by the emotional MQM leaders, workers and the people of Karachi.
Five months forward, MQM is part of the broader coalition but confused about her role in the new government thanks to the step-motherly treatment of the PPP’s government although things are about to be moved to a postive direction.
Nawaz Sharif politics on the other hand had been of confrontational nature where he played and still is playing “for the galleries”, which is understandable in politics since he was and is left with no other options – everyone seems opposition to him thanks to his six years of his civilian despotism in the nineties.
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