Justice Ajmal: The only judge without a plot in his name

Former SC CJ, Justice Ajmal, is the only judge in Pakistan's recent history who did not receive any residential plot.

ISLAMABAD: A former Supreme Court chief justice, Justice Ajmal Mian, is the only judge in the country’s recent history who did not receive any residential plot in Islamabad or anywhere else, unlike most of his colleagues.

In a rejoinder to a report appearing in The Express Tribune, Justice (retd) Ajmal Mian said his name had been wrongly mentioned in the list of chief justices who were given plots by past governments in Islamabad. He was referring to the portion of the report which said “…it was recently reported that a number of judges, including former chief justices of Pakistan such as Riyaz Ahmed Sheikh, Ajmal Mian, Irshad Hassan Khan, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and others had been allotted plots in Islamabad since 1996…”

Rebutting the news report, Justice Ajmal Mian said that he served on the superior judiciary between March 18, 1978 and June 30, 1999, including as a judge of the Lahore High Court, an acting chief justice of the Balochistan High Court, as chief justice of the Sindh High Court, a judge of the Supreme Court and finally as the chief justice of Pakistan.

Justice Ajmal Mian said that although he had the option of getting a plot allotted to him in Balochistan and Sindh, he refused to take the same. “I also did not get any plot in Islamabad,” the former Supreme Court chief justice said.

Clarifying the news item, Justice Ajmal Mian said that after his retirement, Justice Mian Mohammad Ajmal of the Peshawar High Court was elevated to the Supreme Court. He retired as such.

Justice Ajmal Mian said as such it was wrong to suggest that he acquired any plot of land as a chief justice of Pakistan as it had damaged his reputation among his friends and the public.

The Express Tribune regrets the mistake. — Editor

Published in The Express Tribune, December 7^th, 2010.