A nine-judge larger bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry will resume on Monday (today) the hearing of the memo case, and is expected to grant more time to the judicial commission probing the controversy to complete its investigation.
The four weeks the Supreme Court gave to the judicial commission to complete its probe run out today (Monday), and so far the commission has held four meetings but has not completed its task because of the refusal of Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, the central character in the memo scandal, to come to Pakistan to testify before it. The commission has, however, given a final chance to Ijaz to appear before it on February 9 and testify. The commission’s secretary has filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking more time to probe the scandal. Ijaz also petitioned the Supreme Court on Saturday seeking orders for the judicial commission to record his evidence outside Pakistan. Apart from taking Ijaz’s petition, the larger bench may also extend the four-week duration given to the judicial commission. During the last hearing on January 24, the three-judge commission had directed its secretary to send a request to the Supreme Court for extension in the given timeframe because cross-examination of key witnesses required more time. The commission had rejected Ijaz’s plea to record his statement abroad and given him a final opportunity to appear before it on February 9.
Ijaz has now filed a fresh application requesting that either the full bench of the commission or any one of its members could visit an appointed place outside Pakistan to take into his possession the original BlackBerry handsets, text messages, emails, call logs and handwritten notes of the calls as well as recording of his testimony. “The Supreme Court has authorised the commission to collect evidence within and outside Pakistan according to prevailing laws,” his application, filed by his counsel Akram Shaikh, said. Ijaz alleged that in order to unravel the truth and expose the ‘fraudulent’ version of Pakistan’s former ambassador, he had decided to undertake the risk of travelling to Pakistan and continued to be willing to do so in what was now clearly a hostile environment to both his personal security and the security of his electronic devices and other physical evidence to testify and undergo cross-examination. But he said it was imperative that there should be no security compromise to what was now the only physical evidence available. He said he did not want to be part of any institutional conflict and had the highest respect for all institutions of Pakistan, be it the judiciary, parliament or executive. The Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS) has also summoned Ijaz on January 26 and may summon him again on February 10.
I think the supreme court has the biggest scam going. Chief justice is like the head of this mafia clan blackmailing evryone and coming across as the good guys. i have yet to see any real action taken by them that has any significane. just empty threats to keep fooling people in believing that they are doing something.
Since PCNS is already seized of the matter, Supreme Court should dispose off the Petitions due to Mansoor Ijaz's continuous dilly-dallying. Instead, Chaudhry should be paying attention :
1) Eradication of rampant corruption in all tiers of judiciary.
2) Expeditious disposal of pending cases so that common man can have access to justice.
3) Proactivism has become overactivism. This tendency should be greatly curbed.
4) Irresponsible remarks from the bench should be stopped. They cause lot of instability. Sensationalism from all sides has almost wasted last four years.
5) The concept of trichotomy of powers must be respected at all costs. Supreme Court does have the power to interpret Constitution and the Law but it is not unfettered. It must not be exercised in an arbitrary manner. Supreme Court must not intrude into the ambit of Executive & Parliament.
6) Justice delayed is justice denied. Justice hurried is justice buried. Last, but not least, justice should not only be done, it should also seem to be done.
Well said. You summed it up in it's true worth…
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