Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Commenting on his recent meeting with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar Thursday said the premier came to see him and he didn’t go the PM’s Secretariat.

“PM came with a plea, and it is my duty to hear everyone’s requests. I didn’t go to the PM House or the Secretariat. They came to me,” he said during the hearing of a suo motu case pertaining to illegal construction and encroachments in Murree.

The chief justice asserted that he only gained and not lost anything from his meeting with the prime minister at the Supreme Court premises. He said he refused to visit the Prime Minister’s House, thus the PM had to come to his office. He said the prime minister came to him to share his grievances, adding that when a complainant comes at the door of the Supreme Court, he is bound to listen to him.

Addressing senior advocate and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Sardar Latif Khosa, the chief justice said everyone should have faith in him and the institution of the apex court. “Trust on your brother and this institution (Supreme Court),” the chief justice told Khosa, adding that he will not disappoint his institution, the lawyers’ community as well as the nation. “I will not let my institution and my community down,” he asserted.

When Latif Khosa recalled such a meeting of late chief justice Sir Abdur Rasheed with the prime minister of that time and asked whether the situation of his meeting with prime minister Abbasi was like that of Sir Abdur Rasheed’s time,

the chief justice said that Sir Abdur Rasheed went to see the prime minister whereas he refused to visit the prime minister, thus the premier came to his place.

The chief justice repeated that when a complainant or aggrieved person comes to his door, his grievance has to be heard. “Everyone knows what the problem they have,” Khosa said. “I have not named anyone, I have just talked about the complainant/aggrieved,” the chief justice quipped.

In a clarification issued in the evening, the spokesman of the Supreme Court said that different media channels falsely aired in the day that the chief justice had used the word ‘faryadi’ for the prime minister. “It is categorically stated that this attribution to the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan Mr Justice Mian Saqib Nisar is completely wrong and malicious. The Hon’ble Chief Justice holds the Prime Minister in high esteem, being the head of the government, and has never used the word “Faryadi” for him. Any misgivings in this regard should, therefore, be put to rest,” the statement issued by the apex court read.

At a rare one-on-one meeting at the Supreme Court on Tuesday, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had assured Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar of ‘full support’ on public interest initiatives undertaken by the top judge as well as revamp of the judicial system of the country. The chief justice, on his part, had assured the prime minister that the judiciary will continue to perform its constitutional duties “independently, fairly, transparently, without fear or favour and strictly in accordance with law”, according to a press statement issued by the Supreme Court after the meeting.

Separately, while hearing a case regarding deputation of some Capital Development Authority (CDA) officials, the CJP reiterated that there will be no ‘judicial NRO’ or ‘judicial martial law’ in the country.

During the hearing, Naeem Bukhari, who represented a petitioner in the case, claimed that everyone was talking about a ‘judicial martial law’ these days. The chief justice clarified that no judicial martial law or judicial NRO was in the making, adding that there will be only constitution and democracy in the country and nothing else.

The CJP said the judiciary should be critiqued but justly as this will lead to reforms in the institution. “On Wednesday, someone referred to the posters in my favour in Karachi. They do not know I have already ordered their removal. If I slap a ban today, then the business of many will shut down,” the chief justice remarked.

During the hearing, some doctors serving in the hospitals of the federal capital on deputation started shedding tears. The chief justice told them that living nations never weep.

Applicant doctors requested the chief justice to constitute a committee to probe billions of rupees corruption taking place in the hospitals of the federal capital, particularly in the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).

Published in Daily Times, March 30^th 2018.