SC summons Vawda, Kamal in anti-judiciary tirade case
The Supreme Court on Friday issued show-cause notices to lawmakers Faisal Vawda and Mustafa Kamal, seeking responses from them on their recent rhetoric against the judiciary.
The development came as a three-member bench — headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa and including Justice Irfan Saadat Khan and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan — presided over the proceedings of a suo motu notice taken a day ago against independent Senator Vawda.
On Wednesday, two senators — Vawda and PML-N’s Talal Chaudhry — had held separate pressers, questioning the Islamabad High Court (IHC) judges’ claim that intelligence agencies had interfered in the judicial affairs. Without any evidence no one had the right to point a finger at the institutions, they added.
The next day, two MNAs — Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P’s) Mustafa Kamal and Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party’s (IPP’s) Awn Chaudhry — also highlighted the judiciary’s alleged shortcomings and called for establishing ethical standards for the judges.
Kamal claimed the judiciary had set “ethical standards” for politicians and the dual citizenship of judges was a “big question mark” and the judiciary should be made answerable on this issue, while Awn had termed it a crisis that would lead to an “anarchy in the country”.
In late March, six IHC judges — out of a total strength of eight — wrote a startling letter to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) members, regarding attempts to pressure judges through the abduction and torture of their relatives as well as secret surveillance inside their homes.
Meanwhile, in a reported letter written this week to IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq on the breach of his family’s personal data, Justice Babar Sattar had said that while hearing the audio leaks case, he issued notices to the heads of intelligence and investigation agencies, besides relevant ministries.
Senator Vawda had said that the trend of targeting institutions must stop. He had asked why Justice Sattar had raised his voice “one year after the alleged interference”, adding that if the IHC judges had any evidence they should come forward. “We will stand with you.”
Vawda also said that he had requested the IHC for details of correspondence between then-IHC chief justice Athar Minallah and Justice Sattar on the issue of the latter’s US green card, claiming that despite the passage of 15 days, he had not been provided the required details. The senator requested the SJC to take notice of the matter.
In his press conference, Chaudhry said that a judge never writes a letter, rather he issues notice for any interference.
It may be mentioned that the IHC registrar’s office had responded to Vawda on Tuesday. Additional Registrar Ijaz Ahmed stated that information related to residency or citizenship is not included in the requirements for the appointment of a judge in the high court.
In his letter to Vawda, the additional registrar stated that “the conversation between potential candidates for appointment as judge or/an interview with the hon’ble chief justice and/or senior puisne judge of high court is not a communication of which record is maintained and minutes taken”.
As per the letter, there was no written record with the IHC regarding the discussion in the JCP on Justice Sattar’s green card.
Interestingly, the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) had in 2013 rejected the name of senior lawyer Anis Jilani for appointment as the IHC judge because of his dual nationality.
