*Anyone here honestly believes Ataaarni General Malak Qayyyum deserves such a hefty amount of money for a case that he actually lost? Just like this, the money management in the country has seen an unprecedented mess thanks to Musharraf. Question is, why did this figure become public NOW and not before! *
‘Qayyum, Wasim Sajjad, Ranjha major beneficiaries in judges issue’](http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=129582)
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
By Rauf Klasra
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly was told on Monday that senators Waseem Sajjad, Khalid Ranjha and Attorney General Malik Abdul Qayyum were the three major beneficiaries of the last year judicial crisis as the Musharraf regime paid them a total of Rs 22 million for a case they all lost in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Another legal guru, Sharifuddin Pirzada, got Rs 7 million in two cases: Rs 4.2 million in the Iqbal Tikka case and Rs 2.5 million in the Pakistan Steel Mills case, which he lost. The details submitted in the National Assembly during the question hour showed that Musharraf had hired a huge team of 23 lawyers who were paid a total sum of about Rs30 million as fees. The team was hired to ensure the sacking of defiant chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. The government lured them with huge amounts as no other lawyer was ready to defend the reference.
A total of Rs 41 million was paid to the lawyers who fought the government cases in the Supreme Court in addition to some other key cases, which were mostly lost. But the major chunk of the money was pocketed by these three top lawyers in the name of defending the presidential reference against deposed chief justice Chaudhry Iftikhar.
However, another known lawyer of the team, Raza Kasuri, was not given enough respect by the government as he was paid only Rs1 million. The poor guy was also the victim of public humiliation when a lawyer from Peshawar had blackened his face at the entrance of the Supreme Court. Earlier, MNA Begum Nuzhat Siddiqi had asked the minister for law, justice and human rights to show the names of lawyers, who pleased the cases on behalf of the government cases in the Supreme Court during the last five years and the total amounts of fees paid to them in each case.
The reply showed that Wasim Sajjad got Rs 8.2 million to defend the presidential reference, Malik Qayyum Rs 8.2 million, Khalid Ranjha Rs 4 million, M Asif Ranjha Rs 0.5 million, Arif Ch Rs 0.5 million, Amanullah Karani Rs 0.5 million, Raja Abdul Rehman Rs 0.5 million, Raja Mohammad Shamim Rs 0.5 million, Sahibzada Raza Khan Kasuri Rs 1 million, Khalid Mehmood Farooqi Rs 0.5 million, Ehsan Haq Sajid Rs 500,000, Sadiq Mirza Rs 0.5 million, Shabir Ahmed Lali Rs 0.5 million, Ch Nasir Ahmad Rs 0.5 million, Pervez Almigir Rs 0.5 million, Abdul Sattar Chugtai Rs 0.5 million and Abdul Hamid Rana got Rs 0.5 million.