Did a 7 member bench really sit on 3 Nov? Another perspective

SC order to overturn POE of Nov 2007 fake: Yasmin Abbasi

BY ALI ABBAS HASANIE

  11  0  21

Justice Yasmin Abbasi (Rtd) during a talk-show on December 26, 2013 disclosed that the court order of November 3, 2013 showing the names of seven judges of Supreme Court (SC) overturning the Proclamation of Emergency (POE) of November 3, 2013 has never existed in the court record according to the registrar of Sind High Court (SHC). This news has shocked the listeners as the case against Pervez Musharraf under Article 6 is mainly supported by this supreme court order ( allegedly forged ) which was to restrain the enforcement of the POE by the government. Justice Abbasi further stated that on November 3, 2007 subsequent to the declaration of the POE only four judges out of seven whose names were cited on the restraining order were in Islamabad and the order was allegedly issued by CJ (Rtd.) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry from his home without seven judges bench in attendance.

 Justice Abbasi further added that since there was a reference to SHC in the order, she sent a letter to the registrar of SHC and requested a copy of such SC order. To her surprise, the registrar under the instruction of Chief justice of SHC replied to her that there was no such order registered in the record of SHC.

Shahida Jamil, Barrister and a legal expert commented in the same talk-show that President Musharraf received a letter from then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz outlining the deteriorating condition of law and order in the country especially after the bomb blast incident of October 18, 2007 and his recommendation was to impose Emergency rules in the country to control the law and order situation, the terrorist activities and to bring an environment of normalcy to be conducive to upcoming elections in the country. In regard to this letter, the President consulted the entire executive and military branches of the government including all governors, all chief ministers and the army hierarchy. 

This order (POE) was then sent to the parliament which passed the Proclamation of Emergency orderand only then Musharraf signed it.

 Barrister Shahida Jamil believes that it was quite normal for the government to take such a measure which was well within its constitutional rights since there was no contravention of constitution and the parliament, the cabinet and the senate all remained in tact without any abrogation and abeyance of the constitution. 

Shahida Jamil added that a post facto supreme court order of July 31, 2009 to declare the POE retroactively unconstitutional is abnormal and “unjust” in the eyes of law.

 Commenting on the government attempt to prosecute Pervez Musharraf under Article 6 by appointing so called biased judges and the government prosecutors is nothing more than taking revenge and putting the army on trial in a civilian court.

Based on the merits of the case, it appears that the government may not be able to confine this Article 6 case to only Pervez Musharraf as it will explode and open a Pandora’s box which will leave bruises and injuries in the nation which may not heal for a long time. Keeping in view the depressed economic condition of the people and the worst law and order situation in the country, it will be a national tragedy if the people of Pakistan further suffer as a result of this personal vendetta which the vested parties are conducting against Musharraf and an army personal. 

The only beneficiaries from this episode would be our enemies who are closely watching the conflict to grow between the army and the civilian government as the prosecutors called an army chief of Pakistan as “Ghaddar”.

It is obvious from the above disclosures, that a “Kangaroo court” like situation exists in Pervez Musharraf trial and there are political and non-political enemies of Musharraf who are bent upon to take their personal revenges of the past. It is also learnt from the same talk-show that the Prime Minister and Interior Minister have recently met at a secret place in the night with one of the sitting judges of the tribunal who apparently assured them to punish Musharraf in this case and remove him from his home to some unknown place with hands-cuffed.

 Pakistan’s justice system once again is going to be under severe criticism by the international jurists and the human right activists if this Kangaroo like court situation continues. Pakistan judiciary must not forget that the world has not forgotten the “judicial murder” of Zulfiqar Ali Bhuttoo and another attempt along the same lines will be countered this time by the international organizations both at the human right level as well as the government levels. 

It is believed that at least three countries i.e. the US, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have already questioned the malicious intentions of the Pakistan government and the government of Pakistan has assured them that a fair trial will be conducted – which is obviously not the case so far.

People of Pakistan and Pakistan Army are closely watching this drama unfold and one must not be surprised if the reaction of our people forces them to act in an unprecedented and unpredictable way.

 Pakistan is going through a very critical time in its 66 years existence and we hope that our leaders will not make a mistake which the entire nation regrets afterwards.