ISLAMABAD: The detailed judgment on the restoration of chief justice’s case is full of lies stated by General (retd) Pervez Musharraf and his Chief of Staff (COS).
The judgment says that the chief justice had alleged that Pervez Musharraf called him at the Army House while Pervez Musharraf in television talk-shows and his COS in his affidavit have declared that it was the chief justice himself who desired to meet Musharraf.
Interestingly, where Musharraf and his cronies had done the homework of matching their statements like a secret mission, at the same time the press release issued from the office of president on March 9, 2007 states: “... the Chief Justice was called by the President and the Prime Minister and confronted with the allegations in answer to which he could not give any satisfactory reply. Consequently, the president and the prime minister were constrained to refer the matter to the Supreme Judicial Council as provided in the Constitution.”
Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday has quoted Pervez Musharraf’s interview to Geo TV’s Kamran Khan referring to the CJP being kept in the Army House/the president’s camp office in Rawalpindi for about five hours i.e. from around 11.30/11.45am when the CJP reached there till after 5 pm. The reaction of the president to this question was as under: “Now let me give the details of the quoted five hours. First of all, I asked him about why he wanted to meet me? He said that a justice of Peshawar had written a letter making allegations against him and suggesting that chief justice should be taken to trial in Supreme Judicial Council otherwise he (Peshawar judge) would resign. I said Mr Iftikhar there is a reference against you. I had wanted to discuss with him whether it was justified or not. I told him everything and in the meanwhile also called prime minister because the reference was from the prime minister. I told him about the references one by one and wanted an explanation of the judge if it was worthwhile to send it to the Supreme Judicial Council? Even though we had personal relations but I am a strong believer and I am the president of Pakistan and he is the chief justice of Pakistan. There is a reference against him and it is an official act. We cannot be anchored; this is far above personal relations. I have responsibility to the nation. There are legal responsibilities and I am duty-bound to analyse and take some action. So, I thought this is one sided, I must ask the person concerned. And around 2:00 pm, the prime minister and I went to offer Juma prayers. But I gave him the file of evidence of every charge. I had to go to Karachi because I had already got late by half an hour. Chief Justice kept sitting with the staff studying that reference and its evidence. It might have taken the rest of time. A very serious position man was being accused and I did my best to find out. I took decision on my honest conscious in national interest, legal interest and followed the legal norms and handed over to Supreme Judicial Council.”
Regarding the affidavit of the COS to the president, the judgment adds: “Similar was the stance taken by General (retd) Hamid Javed, the COS to the President through an affidavit filed by him on June 7, 2007 i.e. about three months after the said meeting; the COS had further deposed that the prime minister had brought the draft of the reference in question on March 7 and had discussed it with the president and had added that it was the next day i.e. on the 8th of March that a summary had been received from the prime minister advising the president to make the reference in question and further that it was on the same day that the CJP had also rung up the military secretary to the president seeking an appointment with the president, some coincidence.”
Justice Ramday summarised the facts and circumstances stating: “a) that it was the CJP who had been summoned to the Army House/the President’s Camp Office for the 9th of March meeting where the president met him (the CJP) in his Army uniform;
b) that instead of the persons really concerned with the matter, like the law minister and the Attorney General etc., the ones present in the meeting were only the chiefs of the intelligence agencies and generals in uniform; c) that the CJP was asked to abdicate his office which he declined to do; d) that the impugned reference was then hurriedly put in place asking the concerned officials in the Presidency, the PM’s Secretariat and the Law Ministry to remain available despite the said day being a Friday and thus a half working day and while all these matters were being organised and finalised, the CJP was kept in captivity and “in communicado” at the Army House/the President’s Camp Office till his ouster was accomplished through making him dysfunctional and appointing an Acting Chief Justice of Pakistan; e) that some imperceptible hands then hastily engineered a meeting of the Supreme Judicial Council the same evening, even using some unidentifiable flying object to transport at least one hon member thereof to ensure his participation in the said meeting; f) that the SJC. then passed a further order, without there being a request or a prayer for the purpose, and even without being empowered so to do and restrained the CJP from performing his functions as the CJP or even as a judge; g) that to ensure that these designs were fully consummated, without any resistance, the CJP was put under house-arrest and was rendered in communicado; and h) that in the rush to achieve the given target, no heed at all was paid by the SJC. to the objections raised by the CJP about the alleged bias of at least three out of the five hon members of the SJC. and to his earnest and persistent demand that the proceedings of the SJC be not held IN CAMERA and that he be allowed an open and a public trial.”
Interestingly, according to the facts submitted by Musharraf’s cronies before the Supreme Court, a meeting of SJC was held at 6:30 pm on March 9, 2007 while the acting chief justice had taken oath at 5 pm and one of the members of SJC, Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed, came from Karachi to attend the meeting in Islamabad within one and a half hours, which by no means was possible. According to Musharraf’s cronies statements, a judge of LHC, Justice Iftikhar Hussain came by road to Islamabad to attend the meeting and it takes at least 4 hours to reach Islamabad from Lahore by road but he reached in one and a half hours.
Regarding highhandedness with the chief justice and the presence of intelligence agencies at his residence and disconnection of telephone cables which the COS has been denying in his affidavit, Musharraf admitted a few in his interviews, calling it technical handling. Justice Ramday quoted Musharraf’s extracts from an interview that, “Like I (Musharraf) said I believe in freedom of speech and freedom of media. There should be no restrictions. So I got concerned about what was happening. So I said ALLOW HIM TO MOVE FREELY and meet anybody and say anything. And because of that I am glad actions have been taken on ground.” Justice Ramday has also put a number of stories in the judgment reflecting the treatment meted out to the CJ and his family from March 9, 2007 onwards.
End. | 
Health
