Posts Tagged ‘Justice Iftikhar’

MPs with dual-nationality: Holding dual citizenship is no crime says Rehman Malik

The interior minister, now with the prime minister in London, had submitted a written statement through Attorney General Irfan Qadir before a two-judge bench of the apex court.

Malik said he had given up his British nationality on March 25, 2008, before holding public office.

“I given up my British nationality … I thus do not hold any other citizenship, including British nationality, except that of Pakistan,” Malik said.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry asked Malik’s lawyer Azhar Chaudhry to provide evidence to support the interior minister’s claim.

Chaudhry said that since his client is currently on an official visit to the UK, he will discuss this issue with him on his return. The chief justice advised Chaudhry to ask Malik to procure relevant certificates from the British government to support his defence.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday had issued notices to parliament to provide a list of members who held dual nationality, and reissued summons to Rehman Malik, and MNA Farahnaz Ispahani to explain whether they have dual nationality.

Earlier, while explaining the circumstances surrounding his British nationality, Malik stated, “it may be informed that by virtue of my continuous exile in UK for nine years due to political victimisation and life threats in Pakistan, which is a matter of public record, I was granted British nationality but I never gave up my Pakistani citizenship as dual nationality is allowed under Pakistani law.”

The court was also informed earlier through an application that it has no jurisdiction to hear the case of dual nationality. The court, however, did not entertain that application and had asked Malik to reply with a yes or no answer to the court’s question.

Mian Rauf, counsel for MNA Zahid Iqbal, told the court that the British government has only granted permanent residential status to his client and that Iqbal retains his Pakistani nationality. The court asked him to appear at the next hearing on May 16.

Despite being issued summons, neither MNA Farahnaz Isphahani, nor her legal representative appeared before in the court.

The court asked her to engage a lawyer before the next date of hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2012.

1990 elections: SC asks ex-spymaster to answer poll rigging charge

Beg, in his statement submitted on Wednesday, had said that the ISI maintained the accounts of money distributed during the 1990s election campaigns, and Durrani, who was DG ISI at that time, would have information in this regard.

During the hearing of the case on Thursday, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, heading a two-member bench, said the composition of the bench would be changed and at least a three-judge bench will hear the petition from next week.

The court will conclude proceedings on the petition by May 18, he said.

Raja submits inquiry report

Meanwhile, Salman Akram Raja, the counsel for petitioner Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan, handed Mehran Bank’s inquiry commission’s report to the bench. Journalist Hamid Mir provided him a copy of the report, he said.

Attorney General Irfan Qadir informed the court that the reports could not be traced from official records. A copy of the report, from Raja, will be sent to the law ministry to verify its authenticity, Qadir said.

The report bears signatures of the commission members and its authenticity can be verified from the judges, some of whom are still alive, Raja said.

Establishing the commissions

A notification was issued on June 17, 1994 for the establishment of the judicial commission to probe the Mehran Bank scam, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune.

The notifications – SRO 617 (1)/94 for Mehran Bank and SRO 618 (1)/94 for Habib Bank judicial commissions – issued by the law ministry were also published in the Gazette of Pakistan. The Mehran Bank notification stated that there are reasons to believe that the bank was incorporated, operated and administered in a manner that was contrary to law, directions of the State Bank of Pakistan, normal banking practices, prudence and propriety.

It also gave reference of the reports that suggest that Younus Habib obtained the position of the chief operating officer of Mehran Bank through illegal and improper means due to which unlawful practices of money distribution increased in the bank.

The federal government is of the opinion that it is necessary in public interest to appoint a commission to inquire into these matters, the notification states.

Terms of references

The government formed two commissions subsequently.

The Mehran Bank commission was headed by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Abdul Qadeer Chaudhry, and comprised Justice Zia Mahmood Mirza, Justice (retd) ZA Channa, Justice Nazir Ahmad Bhatti, and Justice Qazi Muhammad Farooq.

Besides investigation misappropriation of funds, the main task of the commission was to probe the circumstances in which promoters, shareholders and directors were granted necessary sanctions and permission for establishment and incorporation of Mehran Bank. The commission was given three months initially for completion of its task.

The main task of the Habib Bank commission was to probe the source of generation of funds and subsequent methods adopted for depositing it in different accounts of an intelligence agency (ISI) by Younus Habib during the specified period preceding the general elections of 1990, and utilising them to affect the result of the elections.  The commission was also given three months initially.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2012.

Deadline extended: Court grants memo commission another four weeks

The extension, however, was opposed by the government’s attorney.

Deputy Attorney General Dil Muhammad Ali Zai said that sufficient time had already been given to the commission for the purpose.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, heading a 10-member bench, asked Zai on whose instructions he was opposing the extension which was requested by the commission’s acting secretary.

Zai said his boss, attorney general Irfan Qadir, had asked him to oppose the move.

Justice Jawwad S Khawaja asked if there was a reason for the opposition. Zai replied he had no reason but was under instructions to oppose the idea.

Other parties in the case, meanwhile, expressed no concern in this regard.

In its written order, the court observed that it failed to understand why the government was opposing the extension, knowing that the commission is in the final stage to conclude its recommendations and has requested some time for the purpose.

Three chief justices of High Courts are sitting on the bench and they realise that this task should be completed as soon as possible, the chief justice said to the government’s attorney.

You are still opposing this, he added.

The attorneys for the two central characters, Mansoor Ijaz and Husain Haqqani, were not present at the hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2012.

NAB submits plea-bargain report of Younus in SC

ISLAMABAD – The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday submitted the plea-bargain report of Younus Habib, while Air Marshal (r) Asghar Khan’s counsel Salman Akram Raja presented the Mehran Bank and Habib Bank inquiry reports to the bench.
Attorney General Irfan Qadir informed a two-member bench headed by of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry that the misplaced investigative …

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Durrani responsible for illegal funding: Beg

ISLAMABAD – Denying his own hand in funds disbursement among anti-PPP politicians to manipulate the 1990 elections, former army chief Gen (r) Mirza Aslam Beg has held ISI and its chief Asad Durrani responsible for the illegal funding.
A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, is seized with a 16-year-old petition filed by Air Marshal (r) Asghar Khan against …

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Asghar Khan case: Aslam Baig holds Durrani responsible

Ex army chief Mirza Aslam Baig has blamed former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Asad Durrani for distributing money among politicians in his reply submitted to the Supreme Court Wednesday.
A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, is seized with a petition filed by Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan some 16 years ago against the distribution of millions of …

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Judicial commission meeting: Decision regarding ad-hoc judges deferred

The judicial commission, headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, did not come to a final decision and deferred the issue of finalising the appointment of two ad-hoc and an additional acting judge to the Supreme Court.

The judicial commission is supposed to finalise the list of ad-hoc and acting judges needed to complete the bench that would hear the appeal in the contempt case against Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.

The development came after a delegation of lawyers met with the chief justice on Monday and conveyed their concerns. The appointment was due to ensure availability of a larger bench in case the premier filed an appeal against his conviction for contempt of court for not writing a letter to Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.

Last week, the chief justice had said that three judges who were part of the bench – that heard the contempt case against Prime Minister Gilani – would not be available if a review petition was filed. And therefore, two ad-hoc judges and an additional judge would have to be appointed in the Supreme Court to ensure that a nine-member bench can hear the possible appeal. A seven member-bench headed by Justice Nasirul Mulk found premier Gilani guilty of contempt of court on April 26.  However, the detailed verdict in this high-profile case is yet to be announced.

However, the commission in its meeting on Monday gave approval of the appointment of eight judges to the Sindh High Court.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2012.

SC orders recovery of missing in two weeks

QUETTA –Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry Friday said that no federal or provincial authority seems to be interested in Balochistan peace, declaring the court will now use constitutional options.
The chief justice, who was heading a three-member SC bench hearing the Balochistan law and order case, also expressed annoyance over non appearance of intelligence agencies’ sector …

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Produce missing persons or face mass suspensions

QUETTA – Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry Thursday ordered the officials concerned to produce all the missing persons before the court today (Friday), warning that all of them could be suspended in case of failure.He issued this direction while heading a three-member bench hearing the case regarding law and order in Balochistan and the missing persons at the Quetta Registry of the apex …

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SC annoyed over non-recovery of missing persons

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. — File Photo by Online

QUETTA: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursday expressed annoyance over the non-recovery of the missing persons after the Inspector General Police Balochistan Rao Amin Hashim and Deputy Inspector General Frontier Corps Balochistan Brigadier Shehzad did not come up with the positive headway on the matter of missing person’s recovery tasked by the court to them on Wednesday.

“It is a frustrating situation that the people have been picked up and not a single security agency has a clue about it, said Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry during a hearing on missing person’s cases at Quetta Registry.

A three member bench of Supreme Court of Pakistan comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif and Justice Tariq Pervez continued proceedings on the third consecutive day on the missing persons issue and overall law and order situation in the province of Balochistan.

The bench completed recording the statements of the relatives of the missing persons and gave one more day to the IG police and DIG FC for the safe recovery of the missing persons after the later sought time from the court.

Advocate General Balochistan Amanullah Kinrani told the bench that Chief Minister Balochistan Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani due to his scheduled commitment in Islamabad would not be able to appear before the court.

“He has a meeting with foreign delegation regarding the uplift schemes of the province,” he added.

Chief Justice remarked that the law and order situation is worsening in Balochistan and under the article (9) of the constitution it is the responsibility of the government to ensure that life and property of the people is protected.

Taking serious note of the two different statement of the provincial home minister regarding the involvement of the provincial ministers in the heinous crimes, the chief justice said that the home minister had maligned the constitutional government by making a false statement.

The chief justice directed the home minister to appear before the court and justify his statement on Friday to avoid action against him.

He maintained that on the part of provincial government until now absolutely no response has been witnessed regarding the law and order situation in Balochistan which tells us that no one is serious to resolve the plight of the masses.

Expressing dissatisfaction on the contention of the acting DIG police Hamdi Shakeel, he noted that there would be no gains until the credible information about the missing persons is revealed.

“Our government does not know who had picked up the missing persons, security agencies are blank on it then who else knows about these missing people,” he said adding no one seems ready to heal the wounds of the suffering masses.

Justice Khilji Arif said that we have observed people feel that forces have failed to live up to their expectations which they have now posed in courts.

The chief justice remarked that every person who appeared here had held FC responsible for the disappearances taking place in the province.

The bench recorded as many as 62 statements of the relatives of missing persons.

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Via DAWN.com

Hajj 2010: Slow Hajj scam investigation annoys apex court

The Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Member of National Assembly (MNA) Hamid Saeed Kazmi was imprisoned due to his negligence and involvement in this scam. A two-judge bench of the apex court comprising Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice Jawwad S Khawaja resumed hearing of the suo motu case regarding corruption in Hajj arrangements in 2010.

During the hearing, Additional DG FIA, Inam Ghani, apprised the bench that the FIA had not received the LLB degree verification from Zakria University Multan for one of the alleged accomplices in the scam, Zain Sukhera, a close friend of Premier Gilani’s son.

The court questioned as to why the verification process was not completed, despite lapse of more than 13 months. Justice Khawaja added that the verification process takes ten minutes and that it is unclear as to why the court’s order was not adhered to.

During the hearing, a report pertaining to investigation against Director Hajj Rao Shakeel, former secretary establishment Ismail Qureshi and Joint Secretary Hajj, S M Tahir, was presented before the bench stating that challans were submitted to the court concerned against all three officials on April 25, 2010.

The bench was informed that Qureshi was declared innocent by the FIA, based on which, Justice Khawaja inquired why his name was placed in the list of submitted challans.

Deputy Attorney General Shafi Muhmmad Chandio sought time from the bench to submit his reply in this matter. The FIA director also sought more time from the apex court, citing insufficient time as his reason, since he was assigned the task of probing the scam recently on April 20, 2012.

The hearing was adjourned for two weeks with the court seeking a comprehensive report of the findings so far.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had taken suo motu notice after receiving a letter from Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Khalid Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud and applications received by Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday from different pilgrims, accusing three MNAs and two Senators of embezzlement in Hajj arrangements in 2010.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 3^rd, 2012.

SC summons Raisani in missing men’s case

QUETTA – Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has said the issue of missing persons was a major problem in Balochistan but federal government was not cooperating in this connection while the provincial government was helpless.
A three member Bench of Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary, Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Arif Khilji resumed the …

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CJ summons CM, home minister over Balochistan issue

A file photo of the Supreme Court of Pakistan building in Islamabad. Families of the missing persons have filed 62 applications in the Supreme Court for their recovery. All of them went missing while they were in Balochistan.—File Photo

QUETTA: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Wednesday showed his displeasure with the law enforcement agencies for their inability to recover nine people who had gone missing from Khuzdar and summoned the chief minister and the home minister of Balochistan, DawnNews reported.

A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, and comprising of Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Pervez resumed the hearing today of a petition on the law and order situation and human rights violations in Balochistan at the Quetta registry of the Supreme Court.

The Chief Justice ordered the chief minister and the home minister of the province to submit their written statement in the Supreme Court.

“On one hand we are hearing the ‘missing persons’ cases while on the other hand their dead bodies are being found,” the Chief justice remarked.

“People are scared to come to the Supreme Court,” he added.

On Monday, the chief justice had ordered police to produce 12 people who went missing from Quetta and Totak area of Khuzdar district. It had also warned that action would be taken against police, the Totak tehsildar and the deputy commissioner of Khuzdar if they failed to comply with the orders.

During today’s proceedings, Advocate General (AG) of Balochistan Amanullah Kanrani informed the court that a meeting had been held on Tuesday in this regard, and the Inspector-General (IG) of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) was also present there.

“People’s houses are burning and you are yet to be done with your meetings,” remarked Justice Khilji.

Already having expressing its displeasure earlier today at the authorities’ inability to produce the missing persons, the chief justice ordered that the nine men be presented by 11:30 am today. However, the authorities were unable to produce the people by the allotted time either.

Moreover, in addition to the nine missing persons, the court also ordered the authorities to produce Abdul-Haq – who had gone missing from Shalkot – during proceedings on Thursday.

A woman had informed the court that security officials had picked up three people from a house in Shalkot area in April last year. They had been missing since then despite the registration of an FIR, she said.

Families of the missing persons have filed 62 applications in the Supreme Court for their recovery. All of them went missing while they were in Balochistan.

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Via DAWN.com

SC short of judges to hear PM appeal

QUETTA – Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said on Tuesday three judges had refused to hear the appeal in the contempt case involving the prime minister due to certain reasons, but he did not give details.He said a nine-member bench would be formed if the prime minister decided to file an appeal against the Supreme Court’s judgment, adding that an additional judge and two ad-hoc …

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Not holding LB polls is violation of Constitution: CJ

Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said the court’s job is to identify the problem – and it is for the government to address it. However, he added that the court orders are continuously ignored. Justice Chaudhry was heading a three-judge bench which was hearing a case regarding LB elections at Quetta Registry on Monday.

He said that whenever the third force came to power, the first thing they did was to hold LB elections. The late Gen Ziaul Haq and former military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf conducted LB elections, but it was not understandable why a democratic government was reluctant.

Powers to hold LB election have been devolved to the provinces under the 18th Constitutional Amendment, but they have not fulfilled their constitutional obligation, Justice Chaudhry further remarked.

He said the court appreciated Parliament after the 18th Amendment, but Parliament was not happy with the judiciary. However, the bench was informed that Parliament was not unhappy with the court.

He said that if LB elections were not held, the bench will pronounce its judgment on the next hearing.

Punjab’s Advocate General Ashtar Ausaf apprised the bench of difficulties his province was facing in holding LB elections. “You had to conduct the polls earlier,” shot back Justice Chaudhry.

Sindh’s Advocate General Attah Malik informed the bench that the provincial administration would conduct the polls by October 2012.

Balochistan’s Advocate General Amanullah Kanrani said that his province was ready to conduct LB elections. However, it wanted to hold them along with the other provinces.

But Justice Chaudhry said the Balochistan government should hold the elections at the earliest in light of the problems it was facing. “This will help the province restore peace in the region.”

The bench also issued a notice to the chief election commissioner to present in the court new voters’ lists at the next hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 1^st, 2012.

CJ reproves provinces over delay in LB elections

QUETTA –Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has admonished authorities of the four provinces over undue delay in holding of local bodies (LB) elections.Heading a three-member SC bench at Quetta registry on Monday, the chief justice said that after 18th amendment, the local bodies have completely come within the domain of provinces but despite lapse of a long period LB polls have not been …

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CJ cautions govt over local bodies elections

QUETTA, April 30: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has said the government is bound to hold local bodies’ elections under the Constitution.

“We will not allow anyone to violate the Constitution. The elected government, he said, would face difficulties if it violated the Constitution.

The chief justice made the remarks while hearing a case relating to the law and order situation in Balochistan at the Quetta Registry of the Supreme Court.

Advocate Generals of all provinces presented reports to the chief justice on the issue of local bodies’ elections.

After reviewing the reports, the chief justice said the Punjab government’s report was not effective.

He said it did not appear that elections would be held in 2013.

He observed that whenever the military took over power it first held local bodies’ elections. The chief justice warned that the government would end if anybody filed a petition against non-holding of local bodies’ polls.

He said that someone had once announced that polls would be held within ’90 days but elections could not be held in 11 years.

The chief justice issued a notice to the Secretary of the Election Commission about preparation of electoral lists. He said the commission should also tell the court when these lists would be ready. He also ordered secretaries of local bodies of the four provinces to inform the court on May 3 about the date fixed for the LB polls.—PPI

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Via DAWN.com