ISLAMABAD: The executive-judiciary back-and-forth may take a recess.
After a snub by its own nominee, the apex court’s commission to probe the memogate affair appeared to lose further steam on Thursday after the court could not nominate a replacement immediately.
When the chief justice sought the opinion of other judges on former nominee Tariq Khosa’s refusal, they said the matter should be heard in open court, a statement issued here said on Thursday.
The chief justice subsequently fixed the next hearing for December 19.
A former bureaucrat, Khosa had been nominated by a nine-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, on December 1 to probe the memogate scandal.
A few days later, Khosa submitted his refusal to the Supreme Court Registrar Fakir Hussain, citing ‘personal engagements’.
The president’s reply
On the last hearing, the court had sought written replies from President Asif Ali Zardari, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, former ambassador to US Husain Haqqani, Mansoor Ijaz, and the foreign secretary.
Apprehensions loom over the president’s reply, before the case resumes on December 19, since President Zardari is said to be “recuperating” at a hospital in Dubai.
When contacted, Senator Wasim Sajjad said that the Supreme Court has the power to decide the matter, in case the president does not submit his reply.
The petitioners, including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief, had said that they brought the case to the Supreme Court because parliament was a hostage to the government.
After hearing the petitioners, the Supreme Court set up an inquiry commission to probe the scandal, sparking an immediate backlash by the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party government.
The PPP said the court had ordered a probe without hearing the federation’s point of view, and that the PML-N was persecuting the party by taking the memogate issue to the court.
Scolding the attorney-general
The chief justice also reprimanded Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Maulvi Anwarul Haq over his statement that he did not represent the federation in the memogate scandal’s hearing but appeared only at the behest of the court’s notice.
“Being a chief law officer of the country, you represent the government,” the chief justice said while addressing the attorney general when he appeared before a division bench in the hearing.
“It is your responsibility to be present in the court without notice in every important case related to the government,” Haq was told.
The chief justice added: “We have no objection if you expect a notice in every single case but this is how the office of the AGP will lose its credibility.”
Haq had issued a press note on Friday stating that he was present during the hearing of the memogate case at the behest of the apex court, and not on the directives of the government, adding that he had appeared in the preliminary proceedings of the case following a notice issued by the court. With additional input by Qaiser Zulfiqar in Islamabad.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 9th, 2011.
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