On the formal request of the government, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry nominated on Monday Justice Javed Iqbal and Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, both judges of the Supreme Court (SC), as presidents of the inquiry commissions on the Abbottabad incident and the murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad, respectively.
Although the Supreme Court was already short of its sanctioned strength, both judges had been nominated to head the commissions keeping in view national interest, said a statement issued by the SC registrar.
Earlier, the government had nominated Justice Iqbal and Justice Nisar to head the inquiry commissions without consulting them as or the CJP. Both judges subsequently declined to head the commissions without the CJP’s approval.
On Monday, at the outset of the hearing of a PFUJ petition seeking the formation of a commission headed by an SC judge to probe Shahzad’s murder, a two-member SC bench comprising the CJP and Justice Amir Hani Muslim ordered the government to immediately form a high-powered inquiry commission and also expand the scope of its investigation to the abduction and killing of Shahzad. The government’s counsel Dr Babar Awan stated that he had no objection to expanding the scope of the commission’s investigation because the government and its institutions, including intelligence agencies and the Inter-Services Public Relations, wanted transparency in the investigation. The CJP said that after going through the reports filed by the Punjab inspector general and Islamabad police in the case on Sunday, he had come to the conclusion that it was a case that could easily be traced out within four days.
