KARACHI: Battle lines seem to have been drawn among the legal fraternity over the ongoing constitutional crisis after two leading lawyers’ bodies took diametrically opposite positions on Saturday, with some throwing their weight behind Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, and others seeking his scalp.

In a statement, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Abid S. Zuberi and Secretary Muqtedir Akhtar Shabbir announced that the body stands with rule of law, supremacy of Constitution and dignity of the Supreme Court, headed by the CJP.

However, the statement was soon contradicted by a missive claiming to be from a majority of SCBA executive committee members, who regretted that the two office-bearers were acting like spokespersons of a political party rather than working towards constitutional supremacy.

Separately, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council Vice Chairman Zarbadshah Khan, in a statement issued from Peshawar, expressed reservations over the way the CJP had conducted proceedings in the suo motu case about holding polls in Punjab, and asked him to resign.

Members up in arms after SCBA president, secretary throw weight behind CJP; KP bar calls on Justice Bandial to quit

On their part, the two SCBA office-bearers took serious exception to the “blatantly illegal” resolution passed by the National Assembly on April 6, against the Supreme Court’s decision in the elections case as being violative of the Constitution and independence of the judiciary.

Their statement said that it was truly unfortunate to observe that the National Assembly, which is bound to act in accordance of the Constitution, has disregarded Article 68 which prohibits any discussion in parliament with respect to the conduct of any judge of superior courts in discharge of his duties.

Moreover, Mr Zuberi and Mr Shabbir strongly condemned the reference filed against the CJP before the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) as blatantly illegal and yet another attempt to subvert the Constitution.

“Whereas, members of parliament have made disparaging and extremely disrespectful comments against members of the judiciary which is not only violative of the Constitution but a direct challenge to the integrity of the judiciary,” they said.

Members of the executive and parliament are bound to act in accordance with the orders of the Supreme Court which is final; and cannot be set aside or circumvented by way of an NA resolution.

Reservations

But hours after the two men issued their communique, a separate statement attributed to ten members of the SCBA executive committee, including vice-presidents from KP and Balochistan and members from other parts of the country, took issue with the “non-representative statement” issued by their president and secretary “without taking into confidence the majority of executive”.

“They have not only tried to deepen the difference among Supreme Court judges but also tried to attack on (sic) the supremacy of parliament,” the statement deplored.

The statement demanded that the CJP “immediately call full court meeting to patch all differences” and “constitute a fill court bench to rectify all dissenting decisions”.

Separately, calling upon the CJP to resign, the KP Bar Council urged the federal government to file a reference against Justice Bandial for “violating” judicial code of conduct in the elections case.

Mr Zarbadshah announced holding a lawyers’ representative meeting for independence of judiciary on April 12, adding that office bearers of bar associations from across the province would be invited to the meeting.

He pointed out that Justice Athar Minallah’s “judgement” had clearly proved that the suo motu matter had been rejected by the court with a majority of four to three, but the CJP had allegedly given a misstatement and thus violated the code of conduct.

He recalled that they had filed a reference against Justice Mazahar Ali Naqvi in the SJC, but instead of taking action on it the CJP had been making him [Justice Naqvi] part of important benches of his choice.

Waseem Ahmad Shah in Peshawar also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2023