Pakistan’s top court slams ‘scandalous’ government claims

PAKISTAN: Pakistan’s top court heavily criticised government lawyers for filing “scandalous” material about the country’s suspended chief justice, in a fresh setback to President Pervez Musharraf.

A Supreme Court judge also banned intelligence officials from the premises in Islamabad and ordered spy chiefs to sweep not only the building but judges’ houses for surveillance devices.

Military ruler Musharraf has faced the biggest crisis of his eight years in power since suspending Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on March 9 for alleged misconduct.

Musharraf originally sent the allegations to be heard by a special panel of five judges, but in May Chaudhry launched a Supreme Court challenge against both his suspension and the powers of the panel.

Last Thursday the government asked the Supreme Court to deal with the entire case after all, reversing its earlier position, and at the same time filed details of the allegations.

But on Monday, the government withdrew the application and apologised after complaints from Chaudhry’s lawyer and the Supreme Court judges hearing the case.

Presiding judge Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday ordered the government to pay costs of 100,000 rupees (about 1,660 dollars) for filing the “scandalous and vexatious” application, which he said aimed to damage judges, including Chaudhry.

He said the money would go to flood victims in southwest Pakistan’s Baluchistan province.

“What message you will convey to the world about the president, about the head of state, because you have maligned him... you have done all this in his name, he may not be knowing what you are filing,” Ramday said.

The material the judge referred to included unsigned statements with allegedly offensive references to the ousted chief justice and pictures of his house apparently taken by intelligence agencies.

Ramday also suspended the licence of a legal official whom the government used to officially lodge the documents with the court, and told a senior law ministry officer to appear in court to explain himself.

The chief justice’s lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, showed the court copies of the documents, saying that several were unsigned or incorrectly dated. He said there were also photographs of Chaudhry’s house and cars parked outside.

Ramday said that after going through the documents and listening to complaints from Ahsan, he had “no option” but to ban unauthorised people, including intelligence officials, from the court.

He ordered the chief of the Intelligence Bureau, one of Pakistan’s three main spy agencies, to inspect the courts and the residences of all judges regarding the “availability of any bugging devices there.”

Opponents have used Chaudhry’s case to ask questions about Pakistan’s progress towards full democracy and the dual role of president and army chief currently held by Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999.

They allege the independent-minded Chaudhry was an obstacle to Musharraf’s aim to get reelected as president-in-uniform by the outgoing parliament this year in defiance of the constitution.

Islamabad, Tuesday, AFP