Asma slams ‘judicial dictatorship’

SCBA president says judiciary under Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is becoming a judicial dictatorship.

LAHORE:

Supreme Court Bar Association President Asma Jahangir has said the judiciary under Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is becoming a judicial dictatorship, as reflected in the Supreme Court’s orders on the National Accountability Bureau chairman and judges’ extension cases.

The judiciary is reaching for powers that belong to parliament, Jahangir told reporters on Tuesday. Referring to the removal of Deedar Hussain Shah as NAB chairman, she said the SC had ruled that the chief justice must be consulted on the appointment.

“That means absolute authority to make the appointment will go the CJP, not the the parliament, which is a serious matter,” she said.

Jahangir said she agreed that the appointment should be made after consultations, but questioned how Shah could be disqualified from being reappointed to the post. “Procedural flaws in an appointment do not disqualify a person,” she said.

She said the SC decision on the extension of six additional judges rejected by the parliamentary committee on the appointment of judges had made the committee redundant.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 30^th, 2011.