Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: President Islamabad High Courts Bar Association, Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, has said that when Iftikhar Chaudhary was restored as the Chief Justice of Pakistan he started politicising matters. Jahangiri said Iftikhar Chaudhary became a politician and started taking revenge from his political opponents. Jahangiri was talking to Daily Times on Tuesday.

Jahangiri said Iftikhar Chaudhary removed the sitting prime minister and did not take action against Malik Riaz who levelled strong allegations against him. He said, therefore, Asma Jahangir was also against him. Iftikhar Chaudhary made a secret profession political and made his own political lawyers’ group. Elections were held every year in the bar councils of Pakistan since Pakistan came into being therefore the lawyer’s community seemed to be divided. But the good thing was that the lawyer’s community always gathered on the national issues.

Jahangiri said that the building of high courts was under process and it will take another one and a half year to complete. Islamabad high court is constructing the building so there was no element of corruption in the project.

Jahangiri said that he was against the day to day strikes of the bar associations which affected the litigants. He said during his tenure he was trying to end the strikes.

He said the military courts were made because the civil courts were not functioning properly. Jahangiri said that the Benazir murder case was in the court for eight years but had not been solved yet. He said if the judges were afraid of taking decisions then they should do some other work. He said the current judiciary was working better than the previous judiciary.

The President Islamabad High Courts Bar Association said, when he was elected as president Islamabad high court bar association, he faced many problems from the government’s end. He made a separate canteen in Islamabad high court bar for the lawyers which was inaugurated on August 14. He said the Islamabad bar was in the process of verifying the degrees of the lawyers. He said some lawyers were caught who were fake degree holders and the Islamabad bar registered cases against them. He said the complaints should be rectified against the corruption of lawyers and proper action should be taken against them. He said in the appointment of the judges there was no consideration and suggestions were taken from the senior lawyers and the members of the bars. The bars should properly take into confidence and the suggestions should be on the table during the appointment of the judges.