Pak SC strikes down CJ’s appointment

The bench, which passed the order after about 20 days of arguments from both sides, also declared that all the orders passed by justice Shah in his capacity as the chief justice after November 26 were issued “without lawful authority”. The order, however, declared all the other orders passed by justice Shah before November 26 as valid.

A two-member Quetta bench of the Supreme Court had suspended the appointment of the chief justice on November 26 at the height of the crisis due to confrontation between government and the judiciary following which the ten-member bench had restrained him from exercising his powers as the chief justice and had directed the government to appoint justice Ajmal Mian, the next senior most judge, as the acting chief justice.

The appointment of justice Shah had been challenged on the basis of the famous judges case of March last year in which the court had laid down the rules for the appointment of the chief justice.

But during the arguments, former law minister Abdul Hafis Pirzada contended that the judgment could not have retrospective effect since justice Shah had been appointed nearly two years before that.

The government, which was also one of the respondents in the case along with the president and the chief justice, had supported the contention of the petitioners that justice Shah’s appointment was illegal.Justice Shah, in his written reply has alleged “political treatment” of his appointment and that the government’s response had been based on “malafide consideration”.

After having accepted him “as the validly-appointed permanent chief justice of Pakistan without any objection for more than ten months , it is too late for the government to treat his appointment as unconstitutional, unjust, illegal and discretionary”, justice Shah said in his reply, asking why objections were not raised immediately after the March, 1996 judgment.Shah was removed at a time when he was hearing several important cases against the govt, including a contempt case against Sharif which could have led to the disqualification of the premier. Among the other important cases being heard by justice Shah, at the time when petitions were moved against him at the Quetta bench, included one relating to ISI and a corruption case involving Sharif.

The ISI case was specially considered very important as the court had passed some strong strictures against the intelligence agency following disclosures that it had provided fund to several parties, including Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), for forming an alliance against Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) before the 1990 polls.

A justice Shah-led bench had also suspended the recently-enacted 14th amendment for anti-defection law which was considered alarming for the ruling party as under the new amendment, strong action was recommended even for minor dissent.

With today’s judgment, the supremacy of the Sharif government has been fully established following the removal of justice Shah from the post of the chief justice.

The removal of the chief justice came only 20 days after the resignation of president Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari, who had developed serious differences with the government over the judiciary issue and his refusal to sign the denotification order of justice Shah.