PTI to move SJC against ad hoc judges in SC

Gohar claims mala fide intention in naming four judges during summer vacations

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has announced it will move the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) against the appointment of four ad-hoc judges in the Supreme Court during the court’s summer vacations.

Party chairman Gohar Ali Khan on Thursday rejected the judges induction plan while talking to reporters along with National Assembly Opposition Leader Omar Ayub, Senate Opposition Leader Shibli Faraz and senior party leader Asad Qaiser.

Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa had proposed four retired Supreme Court judges for appointment as ad hoc judges. However, two of them, Justice (retd) Musheer Alam and Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqir had excused themselves from taking up the position.

Barrister Gohar said that the appointment of ad hoc judges was mala fide. “Four judges are being appointed at the same time during the vacations with a view to bringing in like-minded judges,” Gohar said. “We

are sending this issue to the Supreme Judicial Council,” he added.

Simultaneously, a Joint parliamentary party meeting of the PTI and Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) rejected the decision of ad hoc judges’ induction in the Supreme Court, stating that the plan was made to create an artificial numerical superiority of an individual, the press release added.

During the media interaction, Omar Ayub urged that the new ad hoc judges should not hear PTI cases. He said that neither anyone could question the PTI’s patriotism nor dare ban the party, adding that those considering to ban the party were “the ignorant, sitting in Murree”.

“You put our leader in jail but our party did not break. No one can ban the Tehreek-e-Insaf, Omar Ayub said. He added that he had held a meeting with the PTI founder in the Adiala Jail and he had instructed him to organise the party.

“Imran said this government has gone mad, but we will get our [reserved] seats [in accordance with the Supreme Court decision],” he said. In view of the apex court ruling, he added that the chief election commissioner (CEC) and the four commission members should resign immediately.

“Apply Article 6 [of the Constitution] on them immediately,” Omar said, referring to the high treason charge. He stressed that the party would hold a rally in Islamabad. He alleged that the PTI’s parliamentarians were being picked up by agencies and implicated in false cases.

Meanwhile, according to a PTI press release, joint parliamentary party meeting rejected the government’s plan to ban the PTI and initiate high treason proceedings against the PTI founder under Article 6, warning that such a move would lead to chaos in the country.

According to the press release, the participants demanded that Article 6 should be invoked against those who had been flouting the Constitution and breaking the laws for the past two years.

They added the announcement of banning the PTI was a proof of desperation of a non-representatives government.

“The decision to impose ban on the country’s most popular political party is contempt of the Supreme Court because it aims at depriving the PTI of the reserved seats. That is why all political parties, including the government-allied parties, categorically rejected this undemocratic and unconstitutional move,” it said.

The meeting condemned the government’s indirect messages about not implementing the Supreme Court’s reserved seats decision, and warned that any deviation from the apex court’s verdict would lead to political instability.

Demanding action against CEC Sikandar Sultan Raja and members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the participants highlighted evidences, including the “confession of then Rawalpindi commissioner Liaquat Chattha”, of rigging in the February 8 elections.

The parliamentary party strongly condemned the ill-treatment meted out to PTI Vice Chairman and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, while shifting him to Lahore. It termed it the worst kind of human rights abuse to subject a person in a vulnerable state to inhumane treatment and unethical behaviour.

The meeting denounced “illegal arrests and enforced disappearances” of the PTI parliamentarians. “The unlawful and unconstitutional detention of PTI MNAs Moazzam Jatoi and Sahibzada Amir Sultan is a violation of parliamentary traditions,” the press release stated.

The participants of the meeting lamented that no positive progress had been made in the cases of the missing persons, including the brothers of Azhar Mashwani, Dr Shahbaz Gill and a senior member of the PTI Central Media Department.