A proposed member of the committee set up by the Lahore High Court Bar Association to draft a reference against the chief justice of Pakistan and two other Supreme Court judges has refused to join it, stating that he disagrees with its purpose.
The LHCBA general house passed a resolution on July 30 criticising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Azmat Saeed for their decision to reschedule the presidential election. The resolution called for a reference to be sent against them to the Supreme Judicial Council for interfering in the affairs of the Election Commission of Pakistan.
On August 6, LHCBA President Abid Saqi issued a notification to set up a reference draft committee consisting of Dr Khalid Ranjha, Kazim Khan, Saiful Mulook, Waqar Hassan Mir, Shaukat Umar Pirzada and Mirza Nasar Ahmad.
On Monday, Mir sent a letter to the LHCBA stating that the general house did not have a mandate to file a reference against the judges. He said that the general house had not nominated him to the committee and he did not agree with its establishment, so he would not be attending its proceedings. He said he did not know when the committee was convened or its proposed agenda.
Mir said he “smelled the motive” behind the establishment of the committee. “Therefore I am sending back the nomination letter to the bar executive,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 13th, 2013.