Monday, June 14, 2010
By Ahmad Noorani
ISLAMABAD: The Zardari camp has openly started supporting Asma Jahangir as the next chief of the Supreme Court Bar Association, said present SCBA President Qazi Anwar.
Talking to The News, he said that all resources and connections of the government were being used for this purpose. They are bent upon getting Asma elected in the hope that she will stand before the Supreme Court and criticise the apex court judges as president of the SCBA.
But Qazi said that lawyers, who fought for the independence of the judiciary, would leave no stone unturned to safeguard the countrys independent judiciary. The Law Ministry has already started spending government funds by the millions on bar associations, delivered among some members of the lawyers community by the law minister himself in his bid to convince the lawyers to support Asma.
A major problem being faced by the lawyers community is that all the big names of the historic lawyers movement for restoration of judges are siding with Asma Jehangir.According to insiders, PPPs Aitzaz Ahsan, Athar Minallah, Ali Ahmad Kurd and Justice (retd) Tariq Mehmood will support Asma for their own reasons.
Asma has properly started campaigning for the elections to be held in October 2010.When approached by The News, Asma was first not available and her telephone operator was not transferring calls to her. However, on Saturday afternoon, she came on line, but after introduction and coming to know that a journalist wanted to speak to her, she promised to call back soon. However, she did not call back and also did not take calls from this correspondent.
On the other hand, a major supporter of Asma Jahangir, Justice (retd) Tariq Mehmood, while talking to The News, said that if the Peoples Party was supporting them, there was nothing wrong with it.
He said that Ahmad Awais was the candidate of Hamid Khan group and both Ahmad Awais and Hamid were the members of a political party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf. He said that use of the word Zardari camp was not right as lawyers from different parties were supporting their candidates.
Tariq, however, said that whatever Asma had said against the judiciary after declaration of the NRO judgment was her view and everybody had the right to have any views on any issue.It is also very important that according to an audio recording of a BBC interview taken on October 12, 1999, available with The News, Asma Jahangir had termed Musharrafs coup as a step against the Constitution, but at the same time tried to give an impression that because of the large scale corruption and inability of the democratic government, there seemed to be no other way out and tried to defend the unconstitutional step of dictator Musharraf. She had also said that inefficiency of the Nawaz government was the major reason for the coup.
According to insiders, lawyers from all corners of the country have started interacting to devise a comprehensive strategy to tackle the latest move of the Zardari camp, which will be implemented through Babar Awans law ministry.
By Ahmad Noorani
ISLAMABAD: The Zardari camp has openly started supporting Asma Jahangir as the next chief of the Supreme Court Bar Association, said present SCBA President Qazi Anwar.
Talking to The News, he said that all resources and connections of the government were being used for this purpose. They are bent upon getting Asma elected in the hope that she will stand before the Supreme Court and criticise the apex court judges as president of the SCBA.
But Qazi said that lawyers, who fought for the independence of the judiciary, would leave no stone unturned to safeguard the countrys independent judiciary. The Law Ministry has already started spending government funds by the millions on bar associations, delivered among some members of the lawyers community by the law minister himself in his bid to convince the lawyers to support Asma.
A major problem being faced by the lawyers community is that all the big names of the historic lawyers movement for restoration of judges are siding with Asma Jehangir.According to insiders, PPPs Aitzaz Ahsan, Athar Minallah, Ali Ahmad Kurd and Justice (retd) Tariq Mehmood will support Asma for their own reasons.
Asma has properly started campaigning for the elections to be held in October 2010.When approached by The News, Asma was first not available and her telephone operator was not transferring calls to her. However, on Saturday afternoon, she came on line, but after introduction and coming to know that a journalist wanted to speak to her, she promised to call back soon. However, she did not call back and also did not take calls from this correspondent.
On the other hand, a major supporter of Asma Jahangir, Justice (retd) Tariq Mehmood, while talking to The News, said that if the Peoples Party was supporting them, there was nothing wrong with it.
He said that Ahmad Awais was the candidate of Hamid Khan group and both Ahmad Awais and Hamid were the members of a political party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf. He said that use of the word Zardari camp was not right as lawyers from different parties were supporting their candidates.
Tariq, however, said that whatever Asma had said against the judiciary after declaration of the NRO judgment was her view and everybody had the right to have any views on any issue.It is also very important that according to an audio recording of a BBC interview taken on October 12, 1999, available with The News, Asma Jahangir had termed Musharrafs coup as a step against the Constitution, but at the same time tried to give an impression that because of the large scale corruption and inability of the democratic government, there seemed to be no other way out and tried to defend the unconstitutional step of dictator Musharraf. She had also said that inefficiency of the Nawaz government was the major reason for the coup.
According to insiders, lawyers from all corners of the country have started interacting to devise a comprehensive strategy to tackle the latest move of the Zardari camp, which will be implemented through Babar Awans law ministry.
