— Parliament should review CJP’s conduct, send reference against him: Kh Asif
ISLAMABAD: The rift between the lawmakers and the top judiciary appeared to grow larger as a session of the National Assembly on Monday unanimously adopted a motion seeking a judicial reference against Chief Justice (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial with defence minister calling for a parliamentary probe into the judiciary’s ‘biased conduct’.
The House unanimously adopted the motion seeking formation of a special committee to file a reference against the CJP in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) for his misconduct and deviating from oath.
The motion, which was moved by PPP’s Dr Shazia Sobia, was adopted by the House. The members who supported the motion included Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha, Khursheed Junejo, Shehnaz Baloch, and Salahuddin Ayubi.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif demanded the formation of a parliamentary committee to investigate the judiciary’s undue support to a specific person — former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan — as well as sending a reference to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) under Article 209 of the Constitution on the matter.
speaking on the floor of the National Assembly, the defence minister said that the time has come for Parliament to play its constitutional role in this situation.
“In the 75-year history of the country’s judiciary, there had been incidents that have had a profound impact on the country, but recently a group in the judiciary started supporting a political group,” he said.
Asif said that political support could be seen from the current decisions of the judiciary, adding that the decision of 4-3 has no constitutional value, because the only purpose of judiciary is to give relief to Imran Khan.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif addressing the Joint Session of the Parliament in National Assembly said that one faction of the judiciary was involved in politics and backing the attackers of May 9 Corps Commander House.
A joint sitting is being underway under the chair of NA Speaker Raja Parvaiz Ashraf. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has also reached the Lower House of the Parliament. Asif asked the NA Speaker to suspend the question and answer session and hold discussion on national politics. He said time has come that Parliament should exercise its constitutional and parliamentary rights.
“Judges are not serving justice, they are doing politics,” he made these remarks on the floor of the Lower House of the Parliament. He lamented PTI workers’ attack on General Headquarters (GHQ) where only Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) attacked before.
The Defence minister suggested Parliament should send reference in the Supreme Judicial Council and play its historical role. He alleged that the judiciary is backing attackers of Corps Commander House in Lahore.
: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has warned the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) that it has one last chance to “clarify whether it wants to become a political party or not”.
Speaking during a joint session of parliament Monday, he said that if the PTI is a political party, then it should first condemn the arson attacks and violence — perpetrated during widespread protests following the arrest of party chairman Imran Khan — and apologise.
“If it does not apologise, then we will not negotiate with a ‘militant party’, whether on the instructions of the chief justice or anyone else,” he asserted.
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman’s comments come days after PTI supporters — enraged by the arrest of their chief in the Al-Qadir Trust case — attacked military installations and damaged both public and private properties in violence that lasted for days.
PTI protesters had attacked the Lahore Corps Commanders House and the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi, besides damaging other properties, including Radio Pakistan’s Peshawar office.
The situation stabilised after the Supreme Court declared Khan’s arrest by Rangers personnel on the warrant of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) “illegal” and ordered his immediate release.
Subsequently, the PTI chief was granted protective bail by the Islamabad High Court (IHC). The verdicts have been strongly criticised by the ruling coalition, which has said the courts “favoured” Khan.
Referring to the violent incidents in his address today, Bilawal said that they had “proved PTI was a militant party”.
Earlier today, the lower house of parliament also adopted a motion condemning the PTI’s violent protests and demanded action against Khan and the protesters under the Army Act.
Lawmakers said such elements took the entire country hostage by creating anarchy and commotion and damaging public and private properties. Such anti-state elements do not deserve any leniency and they should be taken to task, they added.
