Chaudhry not on bench to hear plea on two offices

Islamabad: Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry decided yesterday that he would not be a part of a nine-member bench formed to hear petitions challenging a law on holding two offices (President to Hold Another Office Act, 2004) from September 17.

The second senior-most Supreme Court judge, Justice Rana Bhagwandas, will head the nine-member bench. Six petitions on the matter were filed in the court.

Earlier a seven-member Supreme Court bench headed by Chaudhry on September 6 sought help from three prominent constitutional experts - Aitzaz Ahsan, S.M. Zafar and Abdul Hafeez Pirzada - as amicus curiae (friends of the court) and fixed the case for regular hearing from September 17.

Provocation

Meanwhile, the former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali told the Gulf News yesterday that some politicians are fuelling a possible provocation between President Pervez Musharraf and Chief Justice Chaudhry for their own vested interests and have pushed the president into a blind alley.

He said that the Chaudhry brothers (Chaudhry Shujaat and Chaudhry Pervez Elahi) were floating proposals through different channels to make Shujaat the President of Pakistan and that the elections should be held in his supervision.

"They are of the view that President Musharraf should remain the Chief of Army Staff and Chaudhry Shujaat would amend the constitution after securing two-third majority in polls to make General Musharraf a uniformed president again," Jamali added.

The authority lies with the president but the guns are being operated by the Chaudhry brothers," he said.