SC perturbed: Plea for probe on NAB chief claims questioned

PM advised to look into Fasih Bokhari’s allegations against court in letter to president.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court was visibly upset on Tuesday after learning that the law ministry had advised the prime minister to constitute a commission to look into claims made by the nation’s accountability chief on the court’s role.

“You want to form a commission to discuss the conduct of judges. Do you have any idea how the Constitution works?” asked Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, while addressing a senior joint secretary of the law ministry, Sohail Qureshi.

Qureshi informed the court that they had withdrawn the notification about the formation of an inquiry commission to probe a letter written by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chief Fasih Bokhari to President Asif Ali Zardari. Bokhari had said in the letter that Supreme Court was not allowing the bureau to independently investigate different cases.

“It is a serious matter, and we want to know who asked you to form the commission,” said Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

Responding to the bench’s questions, the law ministry official said a presidential reference was sent to Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf asking for advice on Bokhari’s letter.



The premier wrote to the law secretary asking for legal advice on the issue and in response the ministry proposed the formation of a judicial commission to look into the matter.

However, Qureshi added that on March 15 the ministry withdrew its notification as some technical errors had been committed and deferred the matter till further orders.

The bench deferred the hearing till Wednesday and said the matter would be taken up along with the case involving the NAB chief, who had been put on notice for writing the letter to the president.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2013.