Supreme Court Bar Association President Asma Jahangir has criticised the SC judgment in PCO judges case which declared seven judges, who took oath under PCO 2007, as dysfunctional. Addressing the lawyers at Hyderabad Bar Council here Wednesday she called the verdict ‘unfair.’
“The impression that judiciary has been restored but justice is not, is right,” she observed, adding that the power of pen was to be used to provide justice to common people. Asma recalled that when judiciary was removed from office, the lawyers struggled for its restoration and offered sacrifices.
“But I feel sad to acknowledge that although chief justice was finally restored but the country is yet to see absolute rule of law,” she regretted. She criticised the judiciary’s intervention on the passage of the 18th Amendment by the Parliament and said the way court rejected it should not have happened. “Democracy and rule of law require that all institutions play their role in their respective limits,” she added.
Asma, however, praised Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, saying he has leadership qualities. “He respects bar and we respect him. I often discuss bitter issues with him that he listens attentively,” she added. Asma protested the supreme court’s rejection of appeal filed by the seven PCO judges. “It is not right to say these judges were made defunct after the 18th amendment,” she added.
Talking about the appointment of judges on Sindh High Court’s vacant seats, Asma said the grievances of lawyers of Hyderabad and other districts of Sindh were justified. Asma strongly condemned the brutal killing of a lawyer and his grand-daughter few days back in Nawabshah and called for arrest of the culprits. Pakistan Bar Council member Yaseen Azad, SBA Hyderabad President and Additional Advocate General Allah Bachayo Soomro and Hyderabad District Bar Association President Nisar Durrani also spoke on the occasion.
Later, the SCBA president took out a rally from Sindh University’s Old Campus to Hyderabad Press Club where she addressed the human rights activists.
