- Former Attorney General says no doubt PM has been spared, but it was a narrow escape
by Shah Nawaz Mohal/ Obaid Abbasi
The legal fraternity has appreciated the ‘dissenting notes’ of two senior judges in the Panama case verdict on Thursday, terming it a landmark in the judiciary’s history.
Justice (r) Nasim Sikandar termed the judgment against the PML-N. “Two judges have given statements, while three judges found the evidence insufficient and ordered the formation of JIT,” said Sikandar. When asked why representatives of Military Intelligence and Inter-Services Intelligence were included while Intelligence Bureau- country’s foremost civil intelligence agency was excluded, Justice Sikandar said that maybe they thought that the civil intelligence agency is not that independent.
“It is a good majority judgment, I say. We have been saying all along that to investigate is not a job of the apex Court. They’ve sent the matter to Joint Investigation Team and kept the matter pending, the final decision will come after the JIT file its inquiry report,’ said Advocate Azam Nazeer Tarar, the vice president of the Pakistan Bar Council while talking to Pakistan Today. Tarar said that the JIT will be free to investigate the whole matter and no bar is placed on it. “No one is out of its sphere and no one has been given clean chit,” he concluded.
Former Attorney General Irfan Qadir said that it is a great change. “This is a clear dissent which, surely, will be written in the history that such decision came out of a Pakistani court. No doubt PM has been spared, but it was a narrow escape, he said.
Ali Zafar, former president Supreme Court Bar Association, was of the view that JIT could have been more effective if the bench had made it stronger.
Salman Akram Raja, a legal expert, said that there is no significance of officials like ISI and MI in the JIT as they will see the existing record which is available before the SC.
Faisal Chaudhry, a senior advocate, was of the view that dissenting notes of two judges was a big change in a high profile case with no such examples in the past.
The political parties especially, which are the petitioner, in this case, will definitely peruse the case and the prime minister will face tough time if he did not step down in case of being guilty.
Former president of Rawalpindi High Court Bar Association termed the decision great as it did not give acquit the prime minister. “Two judges give a clear dissenting note which I believe is a great change in SC’s history,” said Asif. He said with the passage of time that prime minister will feel more pressure as JIT was always formed for criminals and terrorists.
