- Ashtar Ausaf says ‘someone’ trying to create a wedge between legislature, judiciary
- Author of alleged reference aims at bringing parliament, judiciary at loggerheads
A timely and wise intervention by National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq and Attorney General of Pakistan Ashtar Ausaf Ali Khan on Saturday saved a major conflict between the federal government and the judiciary as both rejected reports of a reference allegedly filed against Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, the acting chief justice of Pakistan.
It merits mention here that Justice Khosa had headed a five-member bench which had ruled against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members in the Panama Papers case. It was actually social media which had carried a five-paged ‘reference’ allegedly filed by the speaker with the Supreme Judicial Council against Justice Khosa under Article 209 of the Constitution for delivering the April 20 verdict in Panama Papers case.
In the verdict, the senior-most judge had questioned the speaker’s ruling in favour of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Interestingly, the social media carried three out of reportedly five pages of the reference, carrying enough material to believe the reference might have been prepared but the leakage of the document may have preempted the move.
The timing of the reference is intriguing too as the rumours broke out on the weekend, leaving a room for further muzzle in sorting out the matter. However, it was Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf who came out first to clear the air, stating no reference had been filed against Justice Khosa.
“It appears that someone or some political party is trying to create a wedge between the legislature and the judiciary… You may have noticed a lot of disinformation being spread around. The idea seems to be to create despondency,” the attorney general said in a statement.
Later by Saturday afternoon, a spokesperson for the National Assembly speaker also denied any such reference filed against Justice Khosa. He termed the circulation of the alleged reference a rumour aimed at maligning the speaker’s repute.
Justice Khosa had authored a 192-page dissenting note in the Supreme Court’s April 20 verdict in the Panama case. The alleged reference, a copy of which is available with Pakistan Today, refers to a segment of Justice Khosa’s which held the speaker responsible for failing to investigate the allegations against Nawaz Sharif or to refer the reference to the Election Commission of Pakistan.
About the speaker, Justice Khosa wrote, “…Even the speaker of the National Assembly who could refer the matter to the Election Commission of Pakistan belongs to his political party and is his nominee.”
The reference says that unfortunately Justice Khosa in his judgement has attributed to the ‘failure’ on part of the speaker to inquire into or investigate the matter or to refer the matter to the Election Commission of Pakistan.
“Such biased and unwarranted findings of the learned judge against the honourable speaker also damaged the office of the speaker, respected worldwide,” the complainant said, adding that if Justice Khosa continued to be part of the top court, it would be injurious to the judicial institution.
The document went on to state that Justice Khosa’s elevation to the Chief Justice of Pakistan would encourage him even more to make such unwarranted statements. “Continuation in office of the learned judge giving him further opportunity to write such biased, ill-founded and disputed judgements would be highly injurious to the noble image of the sublime institution of the judiciary in Pakistan,” it said.
“His elevation as CJP would further encourage him to flout the norms of decency, justice and propriety with impunity and in contempt of the supreme laws of the land,” the reference reads. The letter also maintained that Justice Khosa was the only judge who leveled these accusations against the speaker.
“That the speaker was elected by majority vote of the House comprising of members from both the treasury and the opposition and to label him as nominee or loyalist of the prime minister is a misstatement and contrary to the facts,” the reference reads. The author of the complaint also aimed at bringing the parliament and judiciary at loggerheads by alleging that Justice Khosa had breached the privilege of the entire parliament.
“It also tantamount to disparagement and breach of privilege of the august House of the National Assembly comprising of 342 members and the speaker elected by those members as custodian of the House.” Moreover, the alleged reference also labeled Justice Khosa for being biased against Nawaz Sharif.
“That as striking astonishment the uncalled for comments against the speaker has been made in the judgment by only one member of the hounourable bench i.e. Mr Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and not by any other honourable member of the bench. This clearly sacks of personal grudge or bias of the honourble judge,” the document reads.
