Ex-CJ Iftikhar says he will meet President Musharraf

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
1

Very interesting comments by the ex-CJ, and very conciliatory in nature.

http://www.dawn.com/2007/11/09/top4.htm

Iftikhar ready to meet president for judiciary’s cause

Deposed chief justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, has said he is willing to meet Gen Pervez Musharraf for the cause of the judiciary. When asked if he would meet President Musharraf to play a role in the restoration of judiciary’s independence, Justice Iftikhar said that before March 9 — the day he was first removed through a presidential reference — he had ‘good relations’ with President Musharraf. He said he often wondered (why the president took that step) because their relations “had never been strained”. He was talking to a BBC Urdu Service journalist on Thursday.

He said that judges who had taken the oath under the Provisional Constitution Order had no legal or constitutional legitimacy. He insisted that he and other judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts who had been deposed were still in office. When asked to comment on reports that the president declared the state of emergency because he feared that the 11-member Supreme Court bench hearing challenges to his re-election would rule against him, Justice Iftikhar said it was wrong to read too much into the remarks made by judges during the course of proceedings. “Supreme Court judges are no ordinary people. They proclaim a verdict only after examining all aspects of a case.” Responding to the president’s criticism that the Supreme Court had released felons suspected of having committed acts of terrorism, he said: “People were produced in the court. If there was no evidence against them, they had to be released. It is an internationally accepted principle of jurisprudence.”

He declined to ascribe the current judicial crisis to a clash between the judiciary and the armed forces.

2

Re: Ex-CJ Iftikhar says he will meet President Musharraf

Is he missing his perks already?

3

Re: Ex-CJ Iftikhar says he will meet President Musharraf

Yaar RP c’mon. If Justice Ch. has any bitterness or frustration towards Mush he would probably not show it in public. There is something called professionalism. There is something called basic decency and decorum. Not every news or outburst is for public consumption. I applaud him for not using any derogatory or insulting remarks about Mush in public apart from urging the masses to rise for the independence of judiciary (nothing wrong with that, he’s the right to protest his innocence). There should be some difference between an educated high-ranking public figure and a ganwaar like Sheikh Rashid. I have also noted that NS (despite I am sure having great bitterness towards Mush) has always refrained from personal attacks on Mush in public. I give credit where it’s due. Imran I know can get a bit rude at times and some of the language (like naukar etc…The wall-chalking by MQM and the pornographic language they used about Imran on one of their websites was equally distasteful) that he used against Altaf and MQM in May could have (and should have) been avoided. I condemned it at the time. See I am not a blind supporter of Imran.

4

Re: Ex-CJ Iftikhar says he will meet President Musharraf

I would like to add Sher Afghan, long arm Wasi Zafar, Peerzada, Durani and few others to that list.

BTW, CJ was asked during CNNs interview if he would like the US to suspend military aid to Pakistan. He said no. He said I'd never do anything to hurt my country's interest.

5

Re: Ex-CJ Iftikhar says he will meet President Musharraf

well looks like cj is feeling the heat, even he knows hes finished.

6

Re: Ex-CJ Iftikhar says he will meet President Musharraf

i have heard ns many times using insults to mush, and im sure shabaz shirff does it in every interview, he even said to people to destory pakistan, when ns was deported.idiot.

we have not heard many interviews from the thief justice so cant really say he doesnt insult from 1 interview.
but if there is someone who has never shown frustration and is a mature man then its mush, he always talks camly about his rivals and even saved nawa shirfs life.

7

Re: Ex-CJ Iftikhar says he will meet President Musharraf

Yep. It has just dawned on him what he has lost.

8

Re: Ex-CJ Iftikhar says he will meet President Musharraf

This guy is just full of it.

9

Re: Ex-CJ Iftikhar says he will meet President Musharraf

**"Iftikhar ready to meet president for judiciary’s cause"

CG was last seen shopping for suicide bomb jacket.
**

10

Re: Ex-CJ Iftikhar says he will meet President Musharraf

whythe witch hunt against iftikhar, I mean surely he is not all bad, he has done many good things, friction happens between parts of govt, its meant to happen. we can accuse multiple parts of govt for abuse of privileges, if he wants to meet musharraf and there can be some sort of solution of the current mess due to his efforts that should be applauded.

11

Re: Ex-CJ Iftikhar says he will meet President Musharraf

It seems that under the present law, all those judges and CJ would not get any pension and facilities that retired judges get. For them to get that, parliament has to bring in new law what they did for all those past judges that were retired in 1999 when they did not took oath on PCO. Last time President Musharraf got a law made for them so that they can retire respectively, but it seems that this time it would be different.

Since pay of judges gone up substantially during last 8 years and their pension has also increased substantially, it seems that CJ is worried of loosing all that. Probably, that is why he wants to have a chat.

True that for all their deeds, it is possible that they are amply rewarded by NS ... possibly BB too. According to some sources, Judges got around 10 million rupees each and CJ may have got a bit more (wallah alaam what is the truth in these allegations), still what these Judges are going to lose is a lot. What CJ is expected to lose out is:

Salary while in Job:
Salary Rs 133250 a month (CJ ... for other SC Judges, salary is slightly less at Rs 125875).
Free residence
Free utility bills
(Unlimited use of phone calls, electricity usage, gas usage as well as water charges)
Officially maintained car (that includes all fuel and repair)
Driver paid
Cook paid
Guard paid
[Plus they get some others to help them too]

** Pension after retirement:**
At present pension is 70 percent of salary plus present government has linked the pension for all employees with current pay too, that means as pay of working judges would go up, pension of retired judges would go up too (that what I know, was not there before Musharraf came to power):

Along with 70 percent of salary, other benefits are:
200 litres of petrol a month
1000 local phone calls a month
1000 electricity units a month
12000 cubic feet of gas a month
Free water charges
A driver on government expense
A cook on government expense
At the time of retirement, Car is given at highly subsidised price

Pension last not only up to the life of Judge, but it last until his widow is alive (though pension goes down from 70 percent of pay to 50 percent of pay). This 50 percent of pay plus all other facilities goes on not only until widow dies but until Son reaches 21 or if daughters than all daughters get married or die.

Now that means, judge and all his dependents becomes free from financial problem for not only life of judge, buy their (dependents) life too.

12

Re: Ex-CJ Iftikhar says he will meet President Musharraf

so this ridiculous pension benefits how do they compare to the ridiculous pension benefits of military generals and Top Civil services officers or MNAs etc, can ya compare and contrast.

13

Re: Ex-CJ Iftikhar says he will meet President Musharraf

Shahbaz maybe but not so convinced about NS abusing anyone but then I cannot be 100% sure

14

Re: Ex-CJ Iftikhar says he will meet President Musharraf

Well, Musharraf government has increased pension packages of all retired government servants ridiculously high. Before Musharraf government, people do not use to get much pension, rather I know many people of even grade 20 and grade 21, living hand to mouth on their meagre pension (just because they did not made money from corruption while in office). Main reason was that their pension did not use to increase or had any relation with pension that present employees in their past position could expect to get, that got changed by Musharraf government.

Nevertheless, I am not talking about the ridiculous increases in Pension by Musharraf government (though it did help old pensioners who were struggling to survive as their pension has also increased substantially and gave some hope for present government servants and deter them from corruption), what I was mentioning is the likelihood financial packages these judges would lose.

15

Re: Ex-CJ Iftikhar says he will meet President Musharraf

I still feel CJ is a decent man, a bit misguided socialist, but still a decent man.

It is sad to see him becoming a tool of anarchist.

SC is not a feudal court where Muzaras (peasants) bring parchi (letter) and the big lord sitting on very big charpoy (table) issues verdicts.

SC decorum demands that the cases should be brought through a long process of research as to why lower courts failed to give justice.

This CJ instead removed the decorum, ignored the lower courts and started taking up direct petitions or suo-moto actions like Zill-e-Ilahi Akbar-e-Azam.

He was given two chances to straighten up, but he refused to understand.

And now the result is an awful situation.

When will our elite figure out that "working together" for the stability of our country is the only way forward.

peace and salaams.

16

Re: Ex-CJ Iftikhar says he will meet President Musharraf


Were the suo-motu actions illegal?

17

Re: Ex-CJ Iftikhar says he will meet President Musharraf

^^ No captain Ji. They were probably legal (CJ is the law or at least knows the law), but some of them were not prudent. US SC would have thrown out many of the $tupid petitions and would never have taken suo-motu on these.

Again the issue is not to fight the legal battles, but instead keep the country safe from instability.

Afgahnis didn't try to keep their country stable, and see how every Tom, Dick, Harry, and even Ranjit had a go at them.

If we do what Afghanis have been doing for the last 300 years, we would surely end up like them.

"As you sow so shall you reap" is not something new. When powerful elite bring instability on the roads, they destroy businesses, and keep people from earning their livelihood.

In worst situations, instability invites foreign powers and local war-chamchas and then you quickly become Islamic Jannat of Mogadeshu.

18

Re: Ex-CJ Iftikhar says he will meet President Musharraf

If they were legal then why so much bickering about it? If govt had problems with Suo Motu actions they could've simply passed yet another NRO/PCO/ordinance/law to repeal that power from justices. But then it is much easier to fire someone and save someone's behind rather than doing it the right way.

[quote]
Again the issue is not to fight the legal battles, but instead keep the country safe from instability.
[/quote]

Yes I see an all out war against instability, 50 F-16s, 200 tanks, 30,000 troops surrounding the "extremism" affected areas.

[quote]
"As you sow so shall you reap" is not something new. When powerful elite bring instability on the roads, they destroy businesses, and keep people from earning their livelihood.
[/quote]

Yes, the dictatorships right from the beginning is what we sowed and the rewards are showing up.

19

Re: Ex-CJ Iftikhar says he will meet President Musharraf

No wonder there are now conciliatory tones coming from the EX CJ. No more calls to the people to rise up against President Musharaf? :)

20

Re: Ex-CJ Iftikhar says he will meet President Musharraf

Do you think such benefits were not there in July?