Tag Archives: Supreme

ISI Chief Lt. General Pasha gets another extension! Will Supreme Court Intervene?

By Aijaz Ahmed

Excerpt:

Islamabad: Director General Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) gets another two years extension in his service, thus all four civilian and the uniformed top brass will remain in the office till 2013, sources in the power corridors revealed to Indus Herald today. However, whether the extension will be taken as a violation of the Supreme Court orders or the extension will bring the political stability in the country is yet to be determined.

Sources placed in the government have confirmed that Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani sent a summary along with his advice for the two years extension in the service of DG ISI Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, which is duly accepted by the president yesterday and thus his present tenure is again extended.

The second extension will start at the end of his first extension tenure that was awarded last year when he was about to retire, but first extension under the law was given for one year.

It may be mentioned that general Kayani, the COAS was also given an extension in his service and also in his tenure as army Chief, ….

…. However, the critical aspect of the extension will be reaction of the Supreme Court on the decision as it has already terminated number of high-ranking police officers including DG FIA, Waseem Ahmed whom the government of the day considers critical in the war on terror. ‘In fact every institution shall work within its limits, and should not intervene in the jurisdiction of any other institution’, said Faisal Raza Abidi.

‘We follow double standards as the registrar Supreme Court is already given two years’ extension by the CJ himself, while army chief is also enjoying an extension, but the civilian government is not allowed to give extension to any civilian officer because of certain other reasons’, commented a senior PPP leader. ‘It is the time now for the Supreme Court to take notice of this extension and set an example’, he added.

Read more : Indus Herald

Judges’ extension: Judges rejected a parliamentary committee’s decision?

ISLAMABAD: The committee had denied one-year extensions to judges, therefore, judges rejected a parliamentary commission’s decision. Is this a ‘judicial takeover’, ‘judicial dictatorship’! or something else?  The Question is, whether an elected parliament represents the will of the people and thus reflective of collective wisdom of people or an appointed body like judiciary should have power to overwrite and supercede the will of the people?

Courtesy: Dunya TV News (Crossfire with Meher Bokhari, 9th March, 2011)

– via – ZemTVYou Tube

Pakistan’s populist judges : Courting trouble

– An overactive judiciary might undermine a fragile democracy

PAKISTAN’S chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, is riding high. At a time when most of the country’s political leaders are despised as venal, lazy or inept, its senior jurist is held in esteem. People tell pollsters they trust him more than anyone. They cheer his efforts to take on the corrupt and hapless president, Asif Ali Zardari. Yet Mr Chaudhry may be crossing a line from activist judge to political usurper.

His judges pass up no chance to swipe at the government. Mr Chaudhry spent months trying to get Swiss officials to reopen a corruption case that could have toppled Mr Zardari (in Pakistan, criminal proceedings against a sitting president are prohibited). After that failed, the courts took up a thin-looking case in which the president is accused of unconstitutionally holding an office for profit. That looks vindictive: the office in question is his post as head of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party.

The courts quickly adopt populist causes, especially those that squeeze Mr Zardari. After an American diplomat shot dead two men in the street in Lahore last month, the mother of one victim appealed for justice on television, saying that she would trust only Mr Chaudhry to help. The High Court in Lahore promptly ordered that the diplomat, who had been arrested, must not be allowed out of the country—even if the government were to rule that he had immunity. In this case, as in many others, the judges have shown themselves to be able self-publicists. Their stance has won approving coverage.

And on the country’s illiberal but widely popular blasphemy law, the Lahore High Court intervened to forbid the president from issuing an early pardon to anyone convicted by lower courts. Before the murder last month of Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab and critic of the blasphemy law, Mr Zardari had told him he was planning such a pardon. The courts seem set on boxing him in. …

Read more : The Economist

When it comes to PPP, even judiciary acts somewhat differently!?

The language of the discussion is urdu/ Hindi.

Courtesy: ARY News (11th hour with Waseem Baadaami, guest Faouzia Wahab)

via – SiasatYou Tube Link

Justice Javed Iqbal’s Parents Murdered

LAHORE: The parents of Justice Javed Iqbal, a senior judge of the Supreme Court, were found murdered under mysterious circumstances in their house near Cavalry Ground on Tuesday night.

Courtesy: SAMAA TV (News Beat with Meher Bokhari, 12 Jan, 2011)

via – ZemTVYou Tube Link

Blasphemy law should remain intact: Aitzaz

ISLAMABAD: The blasphemy law (295-C) should remain intact, and if Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer committed any mistake or blasphemy, instead of killing him he should have been punished under the law of the country, Pakistan People’s Party senior leader Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan said.

While talking to reporters at the Supreme Court building, Aitzaz said no amendment of any kind should be brought in the blasphemy law and it should remain intact at every cost. He said that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had given assurance for implementing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif’s agenda …

Read more : Daily Times

Bangladesh court bans religion in politics

DHAKA (AFP) – Bangladesh’s dozens of political parties must drop Islam from their name and stop using religion when on the campaign trail following a court ruling, the country’s law minister said Monday.

The Supreme Court on Sunday upheld an earlier ruling by the High Court from 2005 throwing out the fifth amendment of the constitution, which had allowed religion-based politics to flourish in the country since the late 1970s.

“All politics based on religion are going to be banned as per the original constitution,” Shafique Ahmed told AFP. The verdict does not affect constitutional amendments that made Islam the Muslim majority nation’s state religion in 1988 and incorporated a Quranic verse in the constitution. …

Read more : The Nation

The Reko Diq fiasco

By Feisal Naqvi

The interesting thing about the internet is that it is as great a force-multiplier for ignorance as for knowledge. Take, for example, the Reko Diq project. The average Pakistani newsreader is convinced that (a) the Federal Government is an evil stooge of western interests; (b) the people of Balochistan are being ripped off yet again; and, (c) it is now up to the Supreme Court to save us. All three beliefs are completely wrong. Here are some facts about the Reko Diq project.

Read more : Pakistan Today

Pakistan : Everyone his own master!

As creative fiction goes, this is unsurpassed. But it gives rise to the unfortunate perception that if this is the best our intelligence agencies can up with – organisations which claim infallibility and think of themselves as the first guardians of the national interest, superior to anything else – then, collectively, we are in deeper waters than we think.

by Ayaz Amir

This is the dispersal of power at its best: defence policy in the clutches of General Headquarters (GHQ) with no input at all from the federal government; the Supreme Court (SC), under the forceful leadership of the twice-restored Chief Justice (CJ), turning itself into an alternative centre of administration; and the government reduced to presiding over a state of administrative mayhem and colourful financial skulduggery.

To say that only defence policy is with GHQ is to do our most powerful institution a great injustice. Foreign policy, or its most salient aspects, is also being run from that holy of holies. Small wonder that no foreign visit to Islamabad is complete without a call on the army chief, Gen Ashfaq Kayani, who gives every indication of devoting as much time to ambassadors and foreign visitors as to his professional responsibilities.

The Foreign Office likes to take itself seriously but in truth it has been reduced to an adjunct secretariat of GHQ. …

Read more : The News

INJUSTICE / DISCRIMINATION AGAINST DALITS OF PAKISTAN

INJUSTICE / DISCRIMINATION AGAINST SCHEDULED CASTES OF PAKISTAN

To – Honourable Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Pakistan, Islamabad.

by Kalavanti Raja Menghwar, Khairpur Mirs

First of all, for current performance of Judiciary I can shortly say “BRAVO, WELL DONE AND CONGRATULATIONS”. Now, some facts about the subject are hereby stated for sympathetic consideration and order.

The castes doing laborious jobs were considered as the outcasts as per Hindu Caste System in Sub Continent for thousand years and remained deprived of social, educational and economic growth. And during 20th century reformers sympathetically named all depressed castes as Harijans, Dalits, Adivasis, Achhoots etc.

Continue reading INJUSTICE / DISCRIMINATION AGAINST DALITS OF PAKISTAN

An excellent article by the fearless Ayesha Siddiqa

Land allocation & the principle of eminent domain – by Ayesha Siddiqa

It is almost every second day that we come across a news item about distribution of free land or on concessional rates to significant members of the state and society. It was just a year ago that there was an uproar about land allocation to journalists. Just a couple of days ago there was the story about the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, having received a plot of land under the Musharraf government. Not to forget the more popular and controversial story of military officers and civilian bureaucrats being allocated land. …
Read more : The Express Tribune

No laws to govern spy agencies, SC told

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court highlighted on Thursday a thorny issue when it asked about laws that governed the country’s spy agencies, but was informed by none other than the chief law officer that there were none.

“Is there any law governing intelligence agencies,” wondered Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, the head of a three-judge bench hearing a joint petition filed by Attiqur Rehman and others against the alleged kidnapping of Dr Niaz Ahmed, Mazharul Haq, Shafiqur Rehman, Mohammad Aamir, Abdul Majid, Abdul Basit, Abdul Saboor, Shafique Ahmed, Said Arab, Gul Roze and Tehseenullah from Adiyala jail in June after their acquittal on terrorism charges.

The court raised the question while referring to a reply submitted on Wednesday by Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq on behalf of two premier intelligence agencies — Inter-Services Intelligence and the Military Intelligence. …

Read more : DAWN

More details : BBC urdu

Panel of journalists discussing conversation about buying Lahore High Court’s judges against Asif Zardari in programme Sawal Yeh Hai with Dr. Danish. Its not even easy to imagine that how much the Pakistani judiciary is corrupt!?

Panel of journalists discussing Conversation Saif-ur-Rehman Justice Qayum, Shehbaz Shareef and others about buying Lahore Hight Court’s judges against Asif Zardari in programme Sawal Yeh Hai with Dr. Danish. How much the Pakistani judiciary is corrupt, its not even easy to imagine!?

Courtesy: ARY News (Sawal Yeh Hai with Dr. Danish, Novermber 21, 2010)

via – Siasat -> YouTube Link 1, 2

Support for Ms Asma Jahangir in SCBA elections

SCBA election down to the wire – By Cyril Almeida
LAHORE: A day before the Supreme Court Bar Association polls, the result of a closely fought election for the presidency of the association appears balanced on a knife edge.
The contest is effectively a straight fight between Asma Jahangir, the legendary human-rights activist, and Ahmed Awais, a candidate of the Hamid Khan-led ‘Professional Group’ which, according to legal circles, often courts right-wing support among the bar. …
Read more : DAWN

War between Judiciary & Executive in Pakistan

Call for end to bickering among institutions
HYDERABAD, Oct 20: Judiciary and Executive are two important pillars of a democratic society and the present split between the two is apt to creating disastrous situation for the state, if not checked early.
This and other similar concerns were expressed by the Sindh Democratic Forum over boiling political state of affairs ruling the country. The SDF, in a statement, criticized the national institutions of not resolving the basic issues of general public like growing inflation, increasing poverty, lawlessness, daily killings, unemployment, electricity problem and other allied issues instead were busy in bickering with each other over petty matters.
People had endured enough and now they want peace for which cooperation among national institutions was a prerequisite, it further stated.
Commenting over the midnight drama between the judiciary and the executive, it stated that perhaps it was for the first time in contemporary judicial history that a full bench was called on a rumour which has damaged the sanctity of justice.
The democratic-minded people feel the elected parliament a supreme body and because the 18th Amendment was passed by the representative of 16 parliamentary parties, therefore there appears no supra body which can challenge parliament’s decisions, said the SDF.
The coverage of court proceedings, judges’ statements, conservative comments by media and support of right wing political parties is portraying as if judiciary was being influenced by armed forces and they were trying to disband the present democratic setup, it further said.
The SDF appealed to superior judiciary to protect the cause of justice and avoid creating the impression as if it were against the elected parliament and democracy.
Judiciary being an important pillar of state and custodian of justice should give a shut up call to irresponsible statements of media, besides taking suo-motu notice against such utterances, it said.
Read more : DAWN

Indian judges ‘no longer lords’

By Jyotsna Singh, BBC News, Delhi
Judges in India will no longer have to be addressed in court as “my lord” or “my lordship” – terms dating back to the days of British rule over India. …..
… Lawyers welcomed the move, with a top lawyer telling the BBC it was time to get rid of a “colonial hangover”. India won freedom from British rule in 1947.
“Maybe [such words] should have been given up earlier,” lawyer Subhash Kashyap said.
“It is perhaps psychological, like removing statues of former British governors and Viceroys in the country.”
Mr Kashyap added that it was also high time to meet a long-standing demand to change the dress code for lawyers.
Indian lawyers have to wear a tie and black coat, even in lower courts that often have no air-conditioning to counter the heat.
In a resolution passed on Wednesday, the Bar Council of India said the new rules for addressing judges would apply to all courts, including High Courts, local courts and tribunals.
The resolution comes after the Supreme Court recently ruled that it was for the bar council to decide on the matter.

Read more : BBC

Bangladesh is secular again

Ruling that Bangladesh is now a secular state, the country’s high court has said that the constitution of 1972 has automatically been restored by a landmark judgment of the apex court that nullified a controversial amendment earlier this year.
Bangladesh is now a secular state as the Appellate Division (of the Supreme Court) verdict scrapped the Fifth Amendment to the constitution. In this secular state, everybody has religious freedom, and therefore no man, woman or child can be forced to wear religious attires like burqa, cap and dhoti,” a high court bench said on Monday.
Read more : Rediff

Via – Globeistan

Judiciary is not non-partisan, it tilts towards Muslim league (PML-N) – says Fauzia Wahab; Chief Justice has characteristics of military generals – says Abbas Athar

The language of talk show is urdu/ Hindi.

Courtesy: – Express TV – Front Line (Kamran Shahid, Abbas Athar, Fauzia Wahab, Kazi Anwar)

Via- ZemTv, – You Tube- Link