Contentious decision: PCO-era judges appointed to key ministry slots
The ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government has decided to appoint judges who had taken oath under the controversial Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) to key slots in different ministries and departments.
‘PCO judges’ is the term popularly used for judges who took oath under the PCO promulgated on November 3, 2007 by former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, and who were elevated to the posts on the recommendations of Justice (retd) Abdul Hameed Dogar, who had replaced Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Their appointment was subsequently declared unconstitutional in the Supreme Court’s (SC) judgment of July 31, 2009.
About 104 judges were ousted, of whom 45 belonged to Punjab. The incumbent government has assigned the posts of the attorney general, law secretary and prosecutor general of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to the judges who had taken oath under the PCO, despite a restraining order issued by a seven-judge bench of the SC on November 3, 2007, moments after Musharraf imposed the emergency rule.
However, some of the judges who were ousted had not taken oath under the PCO. Instead, they had done so under the Constitution, after the order was abolished. One of those was Maluvi Anwarul Haq, who served as attorney general from April 2010 to April 2012, and later appointed by the government as an adviser to the president.
His successor, Irfan Qadir was first appointed as the prosecutor general of NAB by President Zardari. The SC found this illegal because Qadir was the prosecutor general during Musharraf’s era for three years and was ousted on its order. He was swiftly appointed as the secretary of the law ministry. Former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani later appointed him as the attorney general of Pakistan during his trial in the infamous contempt case.
Known for his hard stance, Qadir has often irked the SC by not lending legal assistance in many cases, most notably the contempt case. The apex court has expressed its displeasure over this conduct.
Yasmin Abbasi, the incumbent secretary of the law ministry and NAB Prosecutor General Karim Khan Agha were also among the ousted judges.
Recently, the government also appointed Abdul Shakoor Paracha, who served as a Lahore High Court (LHC) and Islamabad High Court (IHC) judge, as its counsel in the pending Contempt of Court Act 2012 hearing in the SC. Similarly, it chose Munir Paracha, who was also a judge of the IHC, as its counsel in the case regarding the Balochistan law and order situation.
Ramzan Chaudhry, who is the chief legal adviser of Islamabad’s Capital Development Authority, was also an IHC judge, and Shafqat Abbasi, an ex-PPP MPA, who is the chairman of the Pakistan Press Council, was elevated as a judge of the LHC after the imposition of the emergency rule under Musharraf.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 29th, 2012.
COMMENTS (11)
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Congratulations ET. Most of your comment-writing-readers have an ability to pass instant, categorical judgements on almost every subject. Much like the present PCO judges. Now this is called talent par excellence. (obviously my comment won't meet the moderators' standards; no problemo)
there are 2 groups, one who hate President from the core of their heart on the expense of every thing & one who want the Parliamentary system to survive, how immature it could be. guess which side you peoples are standing. . . . ????
Before filing the story mentioned above the Editor/management and the concerned editor/reporter should have verified the fact before publish them.Ethics demand that facts or the contents should be true,accurate.No one has the rights to defame anyone.Jamila J. Aslam was right in saying more than 50 senior advocates who were elevated during the present democratic government who took oath under 1973 original constitution.There were competent senior lawyer and were leaders of the Bars for example Raja shafqat,Habibulah Shakir,Pervaiz malik, Ramadan Chaudry,Anwar pannu etc who held the prestigious positions in the Punjab/Pakistan and High court bar.These 54 judges of the bar have struggled alot against dictatorship of Musharraf,they have never took oath during the musharaf period.Will Express Tribune show courage to publish the names of the pco judges who were retired from the supreme court or who still hold post in the supreme court or those honorable judges who took oath from justice dogar are still serving in the supreme court.WHAT A LEGAL SYSTEM AND PICK AND CHOSE POLICY SPEAK ALOT........Editor should hold an inquiry regarding this news item and should take action against unethical journalism and publish the same in the newspaper.
PCO judges are PCO judges, whether in SC / judiciary or appointed by the govt...so counsel PPP jiyalas not to be obsessed by SC judges only.....
Would love to see how the PPP SDF rush to defend this.
I would like to bring to your attention that Maulvi Anwar Ul Haq did not take oath on the Constitution. Having said that he was a judge par excellence. He without a doubt was a Judge of high calibre and sound judicial mind.
As far as Abdul Shakoor Paracha is concerned. There were two judges with this name. The older Abdul Shakoor Paracha was a Judge of the LHC and the latter one was Judge of the IHC. The older of the two Parachas was a PCO judge and the latter one took oath on the Constitution.
A grave injustice was rendered to 53 judges who took oath on the Constitution in a democratically elected government, so if today the government is giving them important posts it is doing so because of their competency. Most of the Judges who have been pointed out as been given positions are NOT PCO Judges. They took oath on the Constitution and then became footballs on the field of personal vendettas.
If a PCO judge can be a CJ so what is wrong with giving jobs to other Judges.
Taking oath under Gen Mush and his PCO was right when the current judges took oaths twice. In fact not only these judges too oaths under PCO, they also aided abetted and endorsed Gen Mush's acts of high treason. However, it was only after Gen Mush fired PCO SC CJ for corruption only then these judges stood up against his decision and their own jobs. So taking oaths under PCO prior to 2007 was fine but not after 2007. It is like eating pork was OK before 2007 but not after that.