The Hindu : International : Bhagwandas appointed acting Chief Justice

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Friday, Mar 23, 2007
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Bhagwandas appointed acting Chief Justice

Nirupama Subramanian

Swearing-in on Saturday; Islamist outfit protests the posting

— PHOTO: AFP

AT THE HELM: Justice Rana Bhagwandas, who is due to take over as acting Chief Justice of Pakistan, comes out of the Supreme Court bench in Karachi on Thursday.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Ministry of Law on Thursday issued a notification appointing Justice Rana Bhagwandas as the country's acting Chief Justice.

A private TV station, quoting a senior official of the Supreme Court, said his swearing-in is fixed for Saturday and will take place at the court's Karachi Registry.

Mr. Bhagwandas is the senior-most judge after Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary. It is a constitutional requirement that only the judge next in seniority to the Chief Justice will officiate in his absence.

"In exercise of the powers conferred by Article 180 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the President is pleased to appoint Mr. Justice Rana Bhagwandas, the most senior judge of the Supreme Court, to act as Chief Justice of Pakistan with effect from the date he resumes his office," the notification issued by the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights said.

Mr. Bhagwandas, a rare Hindu in Pakistan's senior judiciary, will replace Justice Javed Iqbal, who was sworn in on March 9, the day the Chief Justice was made "non-functional" with the sending of a presidential reference against him in the Supreme Judicial Council.

He was away in India before the Chief Justice's abrupt removal, and returned on Wednesday.

His swearing-in as the acting Chief Justice will be the second time in Pakistan's judicial history that the Supreme Court is headed by a non-Muslim. The first time was in the 1960s when A. R. Cornelius, a Christian, was the Chief Justice.

The Jamaat-ud-dawa, which the United States has banned as a front organisation of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, said in statements that Justice Bhagwandas could not become the acting Chief Justice as it was against the Shariah to appoint him to this office.

"Pakistan is a state based on an Islamic ideological foundation and, therefore, a non-Muslim person cannot head the judiciary of the country, nor can a non-Muslim head any one of the other basic pillars of the state, such as the executive or legislature," the JuD said in one of its statements against the appointment.

Others have put forth the argument that as one of the duties of the Chief Justice is to preside over the Shariah court, a non-Muslim cannot be appointed to head the Supreme Court.

Shariat Court

However, there is nothing in the 1973 Constitution that bars a non-Muslim from becoming the Chief Justice, and the Constitution has remained unchanged in this respect even after the introduction of the Shariat Court during the Zia regime.

According to legal experts, the Chief Justice does not have to preside over the court, and can nominate the next senior judge to do that duty.

Meanwhile, Pakistan People's Party leader Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader Nawaz Sharif announced after a meeting in London that their parties and others in the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy would hold a series of demonstrations in Pakistan from March 26 against the removal of the Chief Justice.

Making efforts to dispel talk of differences between the two parties, both leaders said at a press conference that they had an identical stand on the prevailing judicial crisis.

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