From the "Of a 3-month PM,..." link above:
...The honourable Chief Justice said a lot, advised a few times, even gave clues to the clueless lawyer about the right way of diluting court’s decisions instead of stubbornly refusing to honour them. But it was one line that stood out and summed up the possible future scenario when while warning the government, through its baffled legal eagle, the CJ sombrely intoned that were the government to stay on the apparent course by avoiding honouring court decisions then it harboured serious consequences. To quote him, “Once you (government) take a decision then there are others who can take their decisions”. And this ominous warning came at the heels of a couple of earlier statements that he had made while addressing the attorney general, who perpetually looked like a deer caught in the headlights of the hunters jeep. The CJ had earlier remarked, “this system has been restored after great difficulty...there is no respect for courts, judges, constitution, judgements....there must be collective rule of law”. And the final warning to the man at the helm of affairs, at least on paper anyway, “the prime minister is a wise man, who must know the consequences well”.
What the honourable chief justice probably doesn’t know, or maybe would be hoping against hope for the sake of the system that it would not be so, is that the government’s legal team has decided to take on the court on the Swiss letter issue even if its stand meets the same fate as the famous last stand of General Custer. According to insiders, the executive has plans to even take the extreme measure of withdrawing the executive order (whether it can is another matter) responsible for reinstating the incumbent Supreme Court, the political and other consequences of such a confrontation be damned, and attempt replacing chief justice and some of the effected judges with others. Such is the fear of opening the door to president Zardari’s possible prosecution that his people are willing to close down the system. Talk to them and one of their fears is that by agreeing to write the Swiss letter the government would, by implication, be taking away the president’s immunity at home.....
Posted 1 year ago on 25 Sep 2010 6:34
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