A freelance journalist, Shahid Orakzai has sent a letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in which he says that Chief Election Commissioner Fakharuddin G Ebrahim had deceived the court in 2011 by providing political advantage to PML-N President Nawaz Sharif.
The letter said in December 2011, during the hearing into the petitions against former ambassador Hussain Haqqani, senior advocate Ebrahim did not appear before the court citing illness so that the PML-N leader could present the high profile case himself.
The letter asked the CJP whether the CEC, after deceiving the judges, could disqualify any election candidate for providing false evidence to the court? The letter pointed out that to conceal his “fake sickness”, the lawyer had abandoned the case a week later without giving any reason.
Orakzai asked the CJP to note that Nawaz had not replaced his attorney and he had abandoned Nawaz without giving a reason. “Had he developed any differences with his client, the matter should invite the attention of the entire country because a person who pretends sickness is not only deceiving his client but also cheating the court.”
The letter asked Ebrahim to state “if he was factually sick on December 1, 2011 or pretended to be ill only for a day at the instance of his client”.
The letter said “some wishful thinkers believed that Ebrahim would not trick the court after taking oath before the chief justice but that may not be the case”.
The letter added that under the constitution, a person administering an oath had a much greater responsibility than the person taking it and the oath taken by the CEC could become a burden on the CJP who was required to be vigilant of the actions of the CEC.
Freelance journalist Orakzai asked Ebrahim to confess that he had been pressurised by his client and such a confession would free him from the moral burden. He said a person who succumbed to pressure was not necessarily a liar “but only a fool would ask him to supervise an election”.
Orakzai said following Ebrahim’s steps, Haqqani had also deceived the nine judges.
“The liberty to tell a lie cannot be found elsewhere than Pakistan and the convenience in the Supreme Court is unmatched,” Orakzai wrote. Resultantly, the Supreme Court could not decide who, between Malik Riaz and Dr Arsalan Iftikhar, was speaking the truth, read the letter.
Orakzai said by taking an oath under the constitution, “no one gets a license to deceive the nation”.
He noted that successful deception gave tremendous confidence to a person for his next impersonation. “Just look at your chief election
Commissioner,” he ended.
