Islamabad: President, Asif Ali Zardari, on Friday accepted resignations of both Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) judges who opted to go out of job in protest against what they believed “Diminishing of top judiciary for political reasons”.
SCP’s judges –Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Athar Minallah –had resigned the other day to lodge protest against setting up of a constitutional court under 27th constitutional amendment.
Parliament had passed 27th constitutional amendment early this week. It received huge reaction from the opposition. Imran Khan ‘s party –Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) gave tough reaction on the subject to the ruling alliance in and outside the parliament.
Meanwhile , some judges also gave sharp reaction to the new constitutional amendment and two more hawkish resigned immediately. The outgoing judges had left their lengthy resignations submitted to the president carrying many reservations over the executives’ plan which in their views was aimed at to undermine Pakistan ‘s top judiciary through 27th constitutional amendment. Although retiring judges sent a wave of shock to the ruling alliance by resigning over the issue, but it remained short-lived . The president’s quick action to accept the resignations of both outgoing judges has sent a very strong signal that anyone from the judges community , who in any case resigns , will be shown the door in no time.
Abrupt action of the president to accept resignations of Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Athar Minallah will serve as a warning to other judges if any one of them is pondering to walk out from his/ her office of the judge in protest against 27th constitutional amendment.
In a related and even in more important development , the army ‘s top brass presence at an oath- taking ceremony of the first chief justice of the constitutional court held on Friday also has a loud and clear message for the judiciary.
Pakistan’s judiciary’s unnecessary hostile behaviour in recent years had been a continuous source of tease and worry for the real decision makers. Especially the way top judges misused their authority by calling Suo motos on non issues gave a grieving message not only to the executives , but also to the real power brokers. Behaviour of many chief justices of Pakistan like Iftikhar Chaudhary , Saqib Nisar and many others was extremely objectionable and a source of concern for executives. It was not far from now when Saqib Nisar had intervened in executives authority and conducted raids in hospitals and prisons. The same was the story of Iftikhar Chaudhary . He too was fond of protocol and hence loved to show his powers no matter it was misuse of the authority. Top judges ‘s love for publicity and cheep popularity had made the real power brokers think that the judiciary needs a major surgery lest it keeps on creating problems for the executives and the real-power brokers.
Now Judges will stay in their limit or they will be sacked without any delay.
