Deposed judges under house arrest

Our Monitoring Desk

Recently suspended chief justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has termed the imposition of emergency and Provisional Constitutional Order of president Gen Pervez Musharraf on Nov-03 as an attack on Judiciary and rule of Law in Pakistan, reported the BBC.

In a statement released on Monday, Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry who is under house arrest, said that the move had no legal, constitutional or moral grounds.
He said the incident happening for the last couple of days had no moral or leagal reasoning, and the way judges and people from all walks of life had been treated was unconstitutional and unlawful. “I and my fellow beings who refused taking oath under PCO are practically under arrest and my house door has been locked”, the statement revealed.

Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, on the behalf of Judiciary, strongly condemned the extremism at any level and said, “It is the duty of every citizen especially the lawyers’ community to struggle for the supremacy of Law and independent Judiciary in Pakistan”. He further said that respectable Judges of the Supreme Court while taking suo moto notice on severe human rights violation, had never gone beyond limits of the constitution and law. “The ill governing set up had left people with no other option but to knock at the Supreme Court door”, he said adding that the Court could neither close its doors nor eyes to people in such situation.

He reiterated that the SC Judges would continue doing their duties for the rule of law in the country.

AFP adds: Most of Pakistan’s deposed judges were under virtual house arrest Monday after they refused to take an oath under President Pervez Musharraf’s emergency proclamation, a senior judge told AFP.

Supreme Court judge Mr Justice Rana Bhagwandas, who lost his position after he would not be sworn in under the Provisional Constitutional Order issued by Musharraf on Saturday, said police and security had confined him to his home.

He said (deposed) Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, whom Gen Musharraf has replaced, and many other judges were also in similar confinement at their homes.
“There is a heavy security deployment and our houses are locked. We cannot go out and no one can come in,” the judge told AFP by telephone, adding that he had also spoken to Mr Justice Iftikhar and a few other judges.

“We are confined to our rooms. We wanted to go to the Supreme Court but they locked our houses from outside and have deployed heavy security,” added Bhagwandas, Pakistan only Hindu judge.

Another former judge, Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday, who led the bench that reinstated Mr Justice Iftikhar in July, also confirmed that he had been placed under house arrest along with his family in Lahore.

He said he felt proud of his decision to reinstate Justice Iftikhar, adding: “I am proud of it and even my coming generations will feel proud”.
Online adds: Justice Bhagwandas said imposition of emergency in country has no legal provision.

While talking to journalists, he said that future of country looked quite bleak, adding that present set-up was illegal.

He said that judges who had been appointed had no legal provision, adding that imposition of emergency and implementation of PCO was rather strange and against the norms of the Constitution and law.

Everything that is happening today is illegal, unconstitutional and against the orders of the Supreme Court, he maintained.

He that our staff was locked at their homes while supply of basic amenities had been slashed.

He said that state-run television was showing what we must say contrary to the reality.

He further said that the phone lines of the respected judges had been disconnected. The government had not contacted him, he added.

He stressed that it was very difficult to say when the situation will get normal.
Only coming time will tell about the future of the country, he said.

Meanwhile, talking to journalists, Justice Ramday made it clear that PCO cannot be implemented in the presence of constitutional and legal institutions in the country. Every judge has discriminatory power to take oath under PCO, he said.

He said it was wrong that the judiciary had been lenient towards terrorists. It was not possible for the judges of the Supreme Court to start punishing people without the availability of evidence against them by the government, he disclosed.
“I don’t know why we are being blamed that we had released high profile terrorists”, he questioned. The two judges who gave verdict in favour of terrorists had taken fresh oath under PCO, Ramday maintained.

Expressing his views over his suspension, Ramday said no judge knew till last time what decision he will take.

He said that if the government had any problem over his involvement in the bench who was hearing the case against President General Pervez Musharraf then it should have conveyed their reservations with the court.

Dawn 5/Nov/07