Justice, Judiciary and Journalist

Re: # 18

I don`t see any such chance in near future as long as the core integrity of the Constitution of 1973 remains unchanged. The reason being that that the Constitution gurantees the Islamic nature of the governance; so the next item on a voters agenda becomes the wordly issues like economy, jobs, healthcare, less corruption, efficient government etc. In this regard, religious parties have neither an agenda nor an objective that is sale-able enough. More Islam would not solve economics problems of this nation, but a targeted agenda item might. So that is the core reason an ordinary voter sees religious parties nothing but an instrument of status quo.

However, there is no doubt that a very strong radical political element is emreging fast and gaining political power. This religious element does not belive that this system can be made any better by remaining with in the same system. Their slogan is ``change the system, not the faces``. Currently, this element has no united front and it is not represented by a political party - religious or otherwise - but its members assume the role of guides and preachers and prepare a certain mindset in the people so that when time comes, the change emerges at the grass root level.

The forces of darkness and opression has sensed this threat to themesleves and call this phenomenon the `talibanization of Pakistan`` and call themselves liberals, seculars, moderates, or progressives etc.. But the matter has become far serious than chosing a snazzy name. As the time passes by, the conflict is headed towards an all out civil war, becuase although this so called liberal group is tiny but they have had political and military power on their side since they inherited Pakistan from British.

in the Words of Justice (r) Fakhruddin G Ibrahim , Pakistan is again at a defining Moment in History.


The Issue is not CJ and COAS/Pres/CEO


its about the role ( Future as well as current ) of the organs and insitituions of Pakistan.
for times to come.

its outcome will decide, will Pakistan come out of the quaqmire, or will it keep sliding downhill.

The government tried to block the internet all over Pakistan... then our phones....

GEO`s offices were attacked by the government....

Spread the word... the regime may come crumbling down...

Pakistan zindabad.

Guys

Go and read my ilog.

Zeemax sahib,

(By all indications, Rana Bhagwan Das has been sent on forced leave and there`re doubts he will return anytime before the SJC gives its recommendations. )

I am sure you will approve that. You wouldn`t want a kaffir to be the CJ of ur country, would you?

Regards

#19 by mimazhar ,

Justice Rana Bhagwandas ... on leave till 23 March .. Rumors .. that he has been forcibly kept away.

By all indications, Rana Bhagwan Das has been sent on forced leave and there`re doubts he will return anytime before the SJC gives its recommendations. It has now emerged that CJ was first asked to resign by musharraf but he refused. Then he too was asked to go on long leave so an acting CJ could be appointed, but he refused that as well. Then he was placed under house arrest and an acting CJ appointed in his place anyway. It is extremely significant to note that NO reference had been filed against him at the time he was made `non-functional` (or even by the first SJC sesion on 13th March). So it was a completely illegal act and merely kidnapping of a sort.

Top lawyers of the country including Sharif u din pirzada and Khalid Anwar has refused to plead for the government in the Supreme Judicial Council. What the learned readers of chowk say about this?

It is because the CJ has no case to answer and the top lawyers all know that. There`re some interactors who are saying that let the SJC look into the charges, but they forget that the veracity of the charges is quite meaningless in this case. It is because of the following reasons:

(1) the SJC has no jurisdiction to hear ANY charges against anyone because it is illegally constituted. Only the senior-most serving judge can head it. Being on leave doesn`t matter.

(2) there is no provision to make a CJ as non-functional through an executive order even if there`re the most serious and blatant charges against him. He continues to be CJ while SJC enquires into the charges.

(3) an acting CJ cannot be appointed while there`s a sitting CJ unless he`s on leave from his duties or has been declared mentally or physically unsound.

It is for the above reasons of the Government astoundingly chosing to forcibly remove a CJ, place him under house-arrest, and look for charges and file them later that all the top lawyers know that the very grounds of the Government in removing him are indefensible, and the enquiry will probably not even come to arguing on the charges. Thereby their distancing themslelves from government`s case to save their reputations.

Rgds

This is what happens to pakis who get uppity...it`s funny cause the paki junta is getting it from all sides...mushy sends his goons to pick them up..and then there`s US forces bombing/picking up pakis who show a jihadi streak...

i`m sure pakis are enjoying this new found strategic depth...

Without a trace

They vanish quietly and quickly. Some are dragged from their beds in front of their terrified families. Others are hustled off the streets into a waiting van, or yanked from a bus at a lonely desert junction. A windowless world of sweat and fear awaits. In dark cells, nameless men bark questions. The men brandish rubber whips, clenched fists, whirring electric drills, pictures of Osama bin Laden. The ordeal can last weeks, months or years.

These are Pakistan`s disappeared - men and women who have been abducted, imprisoned and in some cases tortured by the country`s all-powerful intelligence agencies. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has counted 400 cases since 2002; it estimates hundreds more people may have been snatched. The phenomenon started with the great sweeps for al-Qaida suspects after September 11, but has dramatically increased in recent years, and now those who disappear include homegrown ``enemies of the state`` - poets, doctors, housewives and nuclear scientists, accused of terrorism, treason and murder. Guilty or innocent, it`s hard to know, because not one has appeared before a court.

An angry Pakistani public wants to know why. The disappearances are increasingly perceived as Pakistan`s Guantánamo Bay - a malignant outgrowth of the ``war on terror``. This week, the issue moved centre stage with the showdown between President Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan`s chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Many believe the judge is being victimised for championing the cases of the disappeared. ``These are Gestapo tactics,`` says Iqbal Haider, a former minister. ``The more we protest, the more innocent people are being hurt. And what frightening stories they tell.``

For Abid Zaidi it started with a phone call one afternoon last April. The softly spoken 26-year-old was at work at Karachi University`s department of zoology in a cavernous room of stuffed animals, sagging skeletons and yellowing name tags. The voice on the phone instructed him to report to Sadder police station in the city centre. There, a handful of men were waiting for him: he believes they belonged to Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the army`s powerful spy agency. They clapped cuffs on his wrists, wrapped a band around his eyes and drove him to a cell. Then, he says, the torture started.

The men beat him, he says, with a chain, until he collapsed. He was brought to a military hospital; there doctors brushed off his pleas for help. Then he was flown to another detention centre, where he was shown graphic images of torture. ``People`s skin was being removed with knives and blades and they were being drilled,`` he says. ``It was really terrible.`` Then they hung him upside down from a butcher`s hook, his face dipping into a pool of sewage water.

The interrogators wanted Zaidi to admit his supposed part in the Nishtar Park bombings. In early April, a suicide bomber had killed 50 people at a Sunni religious gathering in central Karachi. The officials accused Zaidi, a prominent young Shia, of orchestrating the massacre. Zaidi tried to explain he was more interested in zoology than zealotry. They did not believe him.

In July, an official told him he had been sentenced to hang. Zaidi wrote a will. ``I felt at peace because I knew God was with me,`` he says. But it was a ruse. At 4am on the morning of the ``execution``, having refused to admit his guilt, a dramatic reprieve was announced. Shortly afterwards, he underwent a lie detector test and on August 18 he was flown to Karachi. The blindfold was lifted. Zaidi was driven through the city. The car stopped, a man handed him 200 rupees (£1.80) and pushed the car door open. ``He said, `Don`t open your eyes,``` says Zaidi. When the engine noise had receded, he found himself standing at a bus stop near Karachi University. He got down on his knees and prayed. Then he phoned his brother to take him home.

Zaidi`s account cannot be verified because, officially speaking, he was never in government custody. However a senior police officer familiar with the case describes it as a major embarrassment. ``That boy was picked up by a young officer,`` says the official, who asks not to be named. ``[The police] knew it was the wrong guy. But they refused to listen.``

The ISI is the most powerful arm of Pakistan`s intelligence establishment, commonly referred to as ``the agencies``. Founded by a British army officer in 1948 and headquartered at an anonymous concrete block in Islamabad, the ISI is famed and feared in equal part. Its influence soared during the 1980s, when it smuggled vast amounts of American-funded weapons to mujahideen guerrillas fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. More recently, it has organised guerrilla groups fighting Indian troops in Indian-controlled Kashmir. The other major agencies in Pakistan are Military Intelligence and the civilian Intelligence Bureau, and all three of these major agencies have variously been accused of rigging elections, extra-judicial assassinations and other dirty tricks.

Justice Rana Bhagwandas is the most senior judge after Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. He is on leave till 23 March and is in India. He is in contact with his family but not appearing on media. Rumors are there that he has been forcibly kept away. Top lawyers of the country including Sharif u din pirzada and Khalid Anwar has refused to plead for the government in the Supreme Judicial Council. What the learned readers of chowk say about this?

A serious question for Urstruly.

Sir, do you ever foresee a future when religious parties can be elected in Pakistan - in a free and fair election?!

Re: # 13 Abbas jeffery: Read todays`s Dailytimes. The President General says that he will abide by the decision taken by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC)! This is what he said:

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See text below

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Daily Times- Lahore March 16, 2007

See: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007 03 16 story_16-3-2007_pg1_2

Govt will accept SJC verdict: Musharraf

GUJRANWALA: President Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday that he would accept the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC)’s verdict on the reference filed against Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. “This is a constitutional and judicial matter. The decision will be constitutional and be taken by the judiciary itself ... whatever decision it (SJC) takes will be acceptable to me,” Gen Musharraf said in an address to a big public meeting here. He said he believed the SJC would “deliver justice”, but the opposition was politicising the issue through the lawyers’ community. He rejected the notion that lawyers were not with the government, saying that a several lawyers were at the public meeting. The protests by lawyers in front on the Supreme Court building in Islamabad and in Lahore included only a small proportion of lawyers, who were there for “political purposes”. He said he could not say more, since the matter was sub-judice, but added: “Once the decision is taken by the SJC, I will address the nation on TV and take them into confidence on the issue.” END

Now arn`you feeling better?
Now have a cup of good masala Chai and go to bed, Yar. The darkness will be over soon!

Kamath

Dear interactors,

Relax, yaaran! There are only two possibilities:

(1) The ninety-nine percent likelihood: Mushy will weather this one out because

(a) he is smart and quick on his feet,
(b) nobody is very smart (or better) among those who wish to get rid of him,
(c) the US is comfortable with him.

(2) The one percent likelihood: Somebody else from the khakis replaces him. No big deal – just set your clocks back to 1999 – rewind and start the replay!

I feel depressed and I am not even a Pakistani!

:(

interesting write-up on the cj by fridaytimes.......when i was in pakistan recently, i heard something interesting a bout this cj.........the police was extremely scared of him......he used to call senior police officers into court and tear them apart.......they were afraid of entering his court.........

``Mr Chaudhry, unlike his not-so-illustrious predecessors, has been stepping on the toes of the establishment for many months now. He shot down the New Murree scheme and Basant so beloved of the Punjab chief minister. He overruled the privatization of the Pakistan Steel Mills so beloved of the prime minister. He dragged senior police officers and bureaucrats to Islamabad and castigated them for spurning the rights of the poor and exploited. He stopped avaricious property sharks and conniving officials from turning public parks into golf courses or commercial centers for the rich. He ticked off factory owners for tearing up the environment laws of the country. He stopped sham educationists from setting up sub-standard medical universities. He took “suo moto” notice of thousands of everyday social and economic injustices against the downtrodden. But his worst crime was his insistence on enforcing the writ of habeas corpus in favour of hundreds of persons who had been abducted by the secret agencies of the military and confined without due process of law. Indeed, under his stewardship, the supreme court veritably became a custodian of human and fundamental rights as enshrined in the constitution. This was anathema to the establishment which has got used to its unaccountable and domineering status. But that is not the only reason why he had to go.``

My message to President of Pakistan through his website

Subject: Chief Justice
The one reading this message:

If you have the slightest of courage and an iota of shame, kindly forward my message to the people concerned.

I bet, I challenge you to find me a single Pakistani - beyond the filth Pervez Musharraf has gathered around him of course – who is not spitting and cursing the top command of Pak Fauj.

To be very honest, we have come to realize that Pervez Musharraf personally is very much involved in the ongoing loot of public money. He himself takes a part of the plunder [maal-e-ghanimat in military jargon].

The shameful sale of Pakistan Steel Mills is proof of my claim. Shaukat Aziz was previously money laundering for Zardari and Co. Today he collects “batha” for Pervez Musharraf.

The PSM robbery (and all other dubios deals going on) was definitely not possible without personal approval of Musharraf. Every primary school student understands very well what is going on.

Not a single institution is left in the country that has not been crushed under the filth of GHQ.

I swear to God that I have never felt this much repulsion for anything what I am doing right now for you people.

Take my words for it, there will be no one to shed tears when people will be digging you out from your pitholes and chasing you like mad dogs.

Re: # 11

Thanks for your advice, however, the issue is not limited to CJ only and by standing up and raising once voice does not necessarily means taking to streets. our concern should be related to issues not a person or a group. I do agree with you that we should let the justice prevail. However, we know for a fact our smart leader has made number of foolish mistakes and also have no interest in supremacy of justice, human rights and values. If our current leadership had the will and even the desire we should have seen some changes to our social, political and economic condition. We have seen time and time again the institution which is represented by our smart leader has been instrumental in dismantling of our civil institutions.

i somehow suspect there must be some sexual impropriety type allegations..that is why its kept so hush-hush...or the CJ would have leaked it.

Re: # 10
AbbasJeffery Yar:

Before you get possessed by emotions and take to street, why don`t you wait for the verdict - outcome of the trial? Ther may be indeed real evidence of corruption and micconduct of the judge. Why not wait and see if other judges examine the case through legal and orderly process or become simply collaborators and uphold law of necessity? Afterall you can not condemn all judges.

General President Musharaff is supposed to be the smartest among all military rulers of Pakistan. Do you think he would make a fool of himself when times are running rough nowadays in Pakistan?



Corruption in judiciary. lawyers and miscarriage of justice etc. is nothing new in every society. So wait wait!

Kamath

Washington