ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad
Chaudhry had rejected reference sent by President Asif Ali Zardari in
respect of PCO Judges saying that the president be informed that these
PCO judges had never ever been the judges and reference had no legal
standing.
As per documents available with a private TV channel
Supreme Court (SC) registrar Faqir Hussain sent a letter to law
secretary Masood Chishti on June, 28 that he should inform President
Asif Zardari that CJP had refused to accept the presidential reference
sent by him.
It was said in the letter with reference to CJP
that it seemed President had not been apprised of the facts, therefore,
he filed reference in respect of these PCO judges in Supreme Judicial
Council (SJC) rather than sending them to home. SC had given the
decision that PCO Judges were never the judges and the reference in
this connection had no legal standing.
SC had dismissed the
petitions of these judges last month and issued orders for removing
them from their offices forthwith. 2 among the 7 judges stand retired
and 5 are still working. President had sent a reference to SJC against
these judges whereby it was stated that government had no authority to
remove these judges under the constitution and only SJC could remove
any judge after conducting proceedings.
It was said in the
reference that president of Pakistan wanted SJC after initiation of its
proceedings against these judges should inform him if these judges had
really indulged in any misconduct by taking oath on PCO and if they had
no right to stay as judges on this base.
It was also said in the reference that president would take decision for removal of these judges after seeking opinion of SJC. Online
