The government has decided to implement the Supreme Court orders to remove judges who took oath under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO), and Law Secretary Masood Chishti was likely to inform the apex court today (Wednesday) of the government’s decision, Pakistan Today learnt on Tuesday.
A source told Pakistan Today that the Law Ministry had finalised its summary in this regard and the summary had been sent to Prime Minister’s Secretariat for formal approval. The source said the government had decided not to confront the court on the issue as the ruling party was already violating the court’s orders on a host of issues. Earlier, the government had failed to remove the PCO judges and President Asif Ali Zardari had filed references against the PCO judges in the Supreme Judicial Council instead in order to remove them according to Article 209 of the constitution. However, on orders from the chief justice, the Supreme Court registrar had sent a letter to the law secretary requesting him to bring the factual position of the case to the notice of the competent authority.
On May 18, 2011, while announcing its detailed judgement on the PCO judges’ intra-court appeals, the Supreme Court had stated that since the November 3, 2007 actions of former president Pervez Musharraf were declared unconstitutional by the court on July 31, 2009 and later not validated by parliament in the 18th Amendment, so all the PCO judges ceased to hold offices after the passage of that constitutional amendment. The court had also told the law secretary to issue notifications regarding the removal of these judges because they were no longer entitled to hold their offices after April 20, 2010, the day the 18th Amendment was passed.
Seven judges are facing contempt of court proceedings after they refused to tender unconditional apologies to the apex court: Justice Hasnat Ahmed Khan, Justice Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi, Justice Syed Hamid Ali Shah, Justice (r) Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry, Justice Syed Sajjad Hussain Shah, Justice Yasmin Abbasey and Justice Jahanzaib Rahim. Six judges who had taken oath under the PCO had filed intra-court appeals in the apex court against its February 2, 2011 verdict.