LAHORE – Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) President Asghar Ali Gill, countering the criticism by Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Aasma Jahangir against the Supreme Court’s judgments, said that the LHCBA supported the Supreme Court and all of its judgments in totality. Gill, who was placed on the LHCBA president’s seat with the support of pro-judiciary Professional Group of Hamid Khan, said he will forcefully confront the head on all those elements who ever tried to make stunts against the sitting judiciary.
“I am an elected representative of 19,000 lawyers/members of the LHCBA and it is my duty to stop the way of anti-judiciary forces at work in the country”, Gill said on Thursday in a statement referring to ‘assaults’ made by Aasma against some SC judgments the other day at her press conference.
Gill said the SC under its Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was performing its functions and giving judgments on all cases strictly as per the principles of law and justice, and criticism if any, was unfounded and baseless. He said, “We believe in the SC and its judgments and endorse them to be the best and ideal of all times and all the lawyers of the country especially those belonging to the Punjab are SC’s first shield of defense.” Asma had said that the judiciary under the CJP was heading towards ‘judicial dictatorship’, which was reflected in SC’s judgment for removal of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman and judicial commission (JC)’s dubious working for judges’ extension.
She criticized SC’s judgment that removed Deedar Hussain Shah from the post of chairman of the NAB, saying that the there was no need for SC to add in the judgment that next time CJP be consulted prior to making appointment of any man on the seat of NAB chairman.
She attacked judiciary for its ‘waywardness’ in the quest for grabbing ‘more powers’ to pull down the parliament’s authority in all matters, whether it was a question of appointments on key posts or judges’ induction.
