‘Cars are allotted—then judges are criticised for keeping them’

IHC summons interior secretary, chief commissioner on October 13

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Wednesday issued the summons for the Interior Ministry secretary and Islamabad’s chief commissioner to appear before the court on October 13 over the bulletproof car provided to former Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani ordered the officials to appear before the court along with the relevant record on Friday and tell the court what vehicle and benefits were given to the former chief justice.

He remarked that first a vehicle is provided and then the judges are criticised for keeping them.



In January 2014, the single bench comprising Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui had ordered that the “former chief justice shall be provided foolproof security along with possession of the aforementioned bulletproof car for his and his family’s use without putting embargo of any time specification.”

The Cabinet Division had subsequently issued a notification which stated the car was being provided for three months. In the Intra-Court Appeal (ICA), the appellants – secretary cabinet division and secretary ministry of law – said that they were not a party in the petition which led to the decision of providing a bulletproof car to the ex-CJP.

Later, a division bench comprising Justice (retired) Noorul Haq Qureshi and Justice Aamer Farooq, while allowing the federal government’s ICA filed for reclaiming the bulletproof car from the former CJP, set aside the decision and remanded the case back to Justice Siddiqui with directions to hear all the parties and decide the case afresh.

On December 2, 2016, Justice Siddiqui directed to produce the bulletproof car as case property by December 8, 2016. But the order was challenged and later Justice Siddique recused himself from the case and it was transferred to Justice Kayani.

Even though the former CJP has yet to personally ask for security, but Sheikh Ahsanuddin, the spokesperson of the newly established political party, and another lawyer Taufiq Asif – in their personal capacity – kept fighting a legal battle, arguing that the former top juror must be provided with a bulletproof car at the government’s expense.

The Additional Attorney General (AAG) Afnan Karim Kundi had argued that there was no precedent for the providing a bulletproof car to any retired chief justice, and that if the practice is allowed, it will not only open the door for all retired judges of the superior judiciary to seek the similar but would also be discriminatory under Article 25 of the Constitution.

Kundi had argued that it should not appear as if judges are favoured simply for being judges. And when the whole country is under threat, could everyone be granted the same security as Justice Chaudhry.



On Wednesday, Ahsanuddin told the single bench that the government had a few months ago decided to provide a bulletproof vehicle to CJP Chaudhry and all retired chief justices of the apex courts.

Subsequently, Justice Kayani summoned the officials along with the record and adjourned the case till October 13.

Recently, the Auditor General of Pakistan had declared that the former chief justice was not entitled to public funds for the running of the bulletproof car, recommending that the authorities recover the amount.

While taking a notice of the “unauthorized expenditure of POL/Repair of the vehicle of the retired Chief Justice of Pakistan”, the AGP has not only recommended “that amount should be recovered or got regularized” but asked the law ministry to clarify its position.

Ministry of Law and Justice said it had incurred an expense of Rs4.051 million on the car's fuel and repair since January 2014 till January 2016.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12^th, 2017.