A Pakistan government lawyer created a flutter in the SC by accusing defence lawyers of suspended Chief Justice Iftikar M Chaudhry of being foreign agents.
ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan government lawyer on Wednesday created a flutter in the Supreme Court by accusing defence lawyers of suspended Chief Justice Iftikar M Chaudhry of being foreign agents but later withdrew his allegation after the full bench of the apex court pulled him up.
Lawyers defending and opposing Chaudhry's petition challenging the action against him clashed after one of the government's counsel Ahmed Raza Kasuri charged the top judge's defence lawyers with being foreign agents and receiving foreign funds to malign the military.
The allegation prompted Justice Khalil-ur-Ramdey heading the 13-judge to ask Kasuri whether anything has been said against the military during the hearing of the case for the past several weeks.
However, Kasuri persisted with his allegation saying the defence lawyers were misusing the court's platform to malign the military.
Chaudhry's lead counsel Atezaz Ahesan objected and threatened to file a libel suite against Kasuri.
"Why are you saying these words, don't use such kind of expressions", Ramdey told Kasuri.
The judge said Kasuri's allegations were not certainly called for. Kasuri said his allegations were not directed against specific persons but highlighted a 'general perception'.
"From where did you get this statement, we would ask you to withdraw these words so that we can proceed further with the case. Please withdraw these words unconditionally and please don't get up and make statements without any thought, we have regard for you and let this regard prevail", he said.
Following this Kasuri withdrew the allegation.
Earlier during the course of the arguments, Ahesan said Chaudhry had been ill-treated after his suspension on March 9 and was not allowed to hire a counsel by the supreme judicial council (SJC).
In order to prove his allegation, Ahesan asked the court to summon the records of the SJC whose proceedings have already been stayed.
Kasuri objected, saying the court cannot summon SJC records as its proceedings were held in-camera.
Ramdey over ruled him and ordered for the records of SJC saying that nothing is protected from the Supreme Court.
The records were also expected to throw light on the defence counsel's allegations that Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) Javed Iqbal took oath even when Chaudhry was in the president's office where he is alleged to have been detained for five hours.
Ahesan said the SJC comprising five judges headed by Iqbal met on the same day and passed that order asking Chaudhry to appear before it and declined permission for him to hire a lawyer, which he said was illegal.
He also alleged that on March 13 security officers pulled Chaudhry's hair when they tried to push him into a car as he attempted to walk to court to attend the SJC proceedings.
The Supreme Court later slapped contempt of court charges against the Inspector General, Commissioner of police and the entire top brass of Islamabad police. They later apologised for the incident.
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