Aitzaz flays judiciary as judge quits

Islamabad: A leading jurist and leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) yesterday said the present judiciary was not the judiciary the lawyers had fought for.

"If the judiciary cannot give a verdict against an outgoing general who is at the exit, how will it dare give a verdict against some incoming general in the future?" asked Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan.

He told Gulf News that the 17th Amendment was an ultra vires of the Constitution but the Supreme Court's verdict on Friday had opened the doors for future intervention of generals in politics.

"The other issue is that the president in uniform violates Articles 243 and 244 of the Constitution. If he contests for a political office, he is punishable under Article 6 of the Constitution, Section 55 of the Army Act and Section 131 of the Pakistan Penal Code, punishable by severest penalties, the minimum being 10 years," the jurist claimed.

Meanwhile, criticising the Supreme Court verdict on the petitions challenging Musharraf's dual offices and describing it as a black day in legal history, a 38-year-old civil judge tendered his resignation from service as a mark of protest on Saturday.

The first thing that Ijaz Ahmad, a civil judge and judicial magistrate in Abbottabad, 200km northwest of Islamabad, did upon reaching his office on Saturday was to type his resignation letter and fax it to the registrar of Peshawar High Court.

"I didn't have computer and other facilities at home. So I had to wait until Saturday morning to type and fax the letter of resignation," he said.