ISLAMABAD: The provision of official security protocol to recently retired chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed has been challenged in the Islamabad High Court (IHC), which is likely to take up the petition this week.

The petition contended that the government had granted Mr Ahmed heavy security on taxpayers’ money even though the number of pending cases increased by 10,000 during his tenure and Pakistan had been downgraded in the global rule of law index, falling to 130th rank out of 139 countries.

The petition also cited a previous IHC order as a legal precedent in which the court declared official security provision to former CJP Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry as illegal.

In that decision, the high court declared that retired judges could only get specified post-retirement benefits mentioned in the Supreme Court Judges (Leave, Pension and Privileges) Order, 1997.

Court likely to take up petition this week

It also revealed that former CJPs Iftikhar Chaudhry, Abdul Hameed Dogar, Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Nasirul Mulk, Nawaz Abbasi and Tariq Pervaiz had been utilising official security protocol to which they were not entitled.

Under the 1997 order, a retired judge can retain an official driver or an orderly after leaving the office. An amendment in 2016 allows round-the-clock posting of a security guard at the residence of a retired judge during his lifetime. However, their widow(s) are not entitled to the facility.

The suggestion to provide former CJP Ahmed with official security came from the interior ministry’s threat assessment committee comprising senior police officials and representatives from the administration and intelligence agencies.

The meeting was reportedly convened well before Mr Ahmed’s retirement and came soon after the Supreme Court registrar’s office wrote a letter to the interior secretary seeking complete security for Justice Ahmed after his retirement.

Days before reaching superannuation on Feb 1, the SC registrar’s office issued a one-page letter — with Mr Ahmed’s approval — to the interior secretary regarding the continuation of foolproof security and gunmen to the former chief justice after his retirement in the larger national and public interest.

Interior ministry ‘abused’ power

The present petition of Jurist Foundation — a non-governmental organisation — was filed through Advocate Riaz Hanif Rahi, who previously challenged the extension of incumbent Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa.

According to the petition filed against the official security for a retired judge, Mr Ahmed held the highest judicial office of the country as the 27th chief justice of Pakistan from Dec 21, 2019 to Feb 2, 2022.

The former chief judge sought the continuation of foolproof police and Rangers security from the interior ministry, which “abused” the power to accept the said request.

The permission to provide official security to the retired judge “has been issued under extraneous considerations and for mala fide reasons just to burden the public exchequer for personal benefits”, the petition said.

The petitioner also cited superior courts’ decisions to support his contention.

It said the Supreme Court in Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi’s case of 1975 declared “no one is above the law”; in the case of army chief’s extension, the apex court observed that “you may ever so high, the law is above you”; in Pakistan Steel Mills case of 2012, the Supreme Court held that the “higher the position of an individual, the greater his responsibility and accountability”.

Subsequently, the petitioner requested the court to set aside the interior ministry’s letter of Jan 27 that provides official security to former CJP Gulzar Ahmed after his retirement.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2022