ISLAMABAD: The judge who created quite a controversy in Pakistan — prompting the federal government and the military spokesperson to hold press conferences and announce to move a reference against him — by directing the authorities to hang former military ruler General (retired) Pervez Musharraf at D-Chwok of Islamabad, is least perturbed by criticism and conducted on Friday routine cases in the Peshawar High Court (PHC).
Chief Justice of the PHC Waqar Ahmad Seth was the presiding judge of the special court that issued detailed verdict in high treason case against former general on December 19.
On Friday he was back in PHC and conducted hearing of different cases via video link.
When a lawyer of the Peshawar Bar drew his attention towards criticism and praised the judge for keeping his calm, the judge expressed his surprise and asked if something had gone wrong.
“Has anything taken place this morning?” the judge asked. The lawyer in response asked him, “Didn’t your lordship watch TV?” To this, the judge replied “I watch only wrestling on TV.” This caused laughter in the courtroom.
In the paragraph no. 66 of the detailed judgement, Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth has directed the law enforcement agencies “to strive their level best to apprehend the fugitive/convict and to ensure that the punishment is inflicted as per law and if found dead, his corpse be dragged to the D-Chowk, Islamabad, Pakistan and be hanged for 3 days.”
Shortly after judgement was announced, Pakistan’s ministers held a press conference and called the judge ‘mentally unfit’ and ‘incompetent’.
Minister for Law & Justice Farogh Nasim said the government would be filing a reference against the judge to restrain him from discharging any administrative duties.
Meanwhile, lawyers of the Punjab and Peshawar High Court Bars and a number of senior lawyers have expressed solidarity with Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth for announcing a landmark decision and pledged to defend him and foil any attempt to defame or remove him by the government.
“No judge can be removed from his office nor a reference can be filed against him on the basis of his judgement,” senior lawyer at Supreme Court of Pakistan, Akram Shaikh, said while talking to media here at the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday.
“A campaign is being undertaken against judiciary and judges are being maligned by the government and the agencies. If this smear campaign against honourable judges of the high court and Supreme Court is not stopped, I will raise the issue with United Nations,” said Shaikh.
