SC tells IHC: Decide bulletproof car case by first week of Feb

Ex-chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry using vehicle on public expense


Our Correspondent January 28, 2016
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD: The top court has asked the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to decide – by the first week of February – the federal government’s Intra-Court Appeal (ICA) for reclaiming the bulletproof car provided to the Supreme Court’s former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

The Supreme Court’s three-judge bench – headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar – issued this instruction on the request of Additional Attorney General (AAG) Waqar Rana.  The AAG had told the bench that the ICA was scheduled before the IHC for February 4 and requested that the IHC be asked to decide this matter.



Earlier, the top court, while hearing petition of a lawyer against the IHC’s January 15 order, sought legal assistance from the Attorney General of Pakistan’s (AGP) office to ascertain whether or not it could hear the ICA related to the matter.

The bench also asked the law ministry about the status of the federal government’s appeal pending in the IHC for the past two years. The law ministry said it has already urged the AGP to request the top court to help reclaim the bulletproof car provided to the former chief justice.

The ministry wrote a letter to the AGP’s office, saying that the former CJP had now turned into a politician as he, in December last year, announced to form his political party – Pakistan Justice Democratic Critic Party.

“But he is still using the official bulletproof car of the Cabinet Division and being issued petrol from the Law and Justice Division under the judgment order of the IHC,” read the letter, adding that the government had filed a case but the court had yet to decide it.

The ministry said Chaudhry’s use of the vehicle and petrol had incited the politicians as well as the people to criticise the government. It requested the AGP to explore the possibility of seeking relief from the Supreme Court.

The month-wise breakdown of the petrol used in the official car since January 2014 shows that 6,818.80 litres of fuel, worth Rs638,419, has been provided to the former CJP. With Rs3,375,029 spent on repairs, the grand total comes to Rs4,013,448.

The Cabinet Division had issued a notification that said the vehicle was being provided to the former CJP for three months. However, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the IHC in January 2014 held that the ‘time-specific clause was unfeasible, unrealistic and is discriminatory’. The IHC judge had also directed the law ministry to bear the expenses of the car’s maintenance.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28th,  2016.

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