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Text of Naeem Bukharis Letter toChief Justice Of Pakistan, Iftikhar Chuadhry

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Mr. Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry

Chief Justice

Supreme Court of Pakistan

IslamabadPakistan

My Lord:

I write this letter as an Officer of the Supreme Court of Pakistan; as an Advocate enrolled in

the apex Court since 1984 and in the High Courts since 1972; as an Attorney who has paid

more income tax from his earnings in the legal profession than many of my friends,

colleagues and seniors elevated to the Bench; and as a stake-holder in the dispensation of

justice, intimately and vitally interested in the functioning of the Supreme Court.

Many judges who adorn the Bench in the Supreme Court and the High Court know me overdecades, as a person endowed by nature with a pleasant disposition and acceptance of

human failings. Towards the courts, my approach has always been of consistent and

continuous display of respect and humility. I bow out of conviction, not compulsion. I use

the words My Lords, because I want to, not because I have to. As an Attorney, I look up to

the Court and want to see it on a high pedestal of dignity, compassion and justice, tempered

with mercy.

I have seen my Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Hamood-ur-Rahman, Chief Justice

Muhammad Yaqub Ali, Chief Justice S. Anwar-ul-Haq, Chief Justice Mohammad Haleem and

how the Court functioned under them in the 1970s/1980s.

I witnessed the proceedings for the ouster of Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, became aware

that the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, had worked on somejudges of the Supreme Court and saw the physical assault on the Court.

I was appalled at the manner in which Chief Justice Irshad Hasan Khan led the Supreme

Court and pained at the insinuations against Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmad, when he was the

Chief Justice.

I was horrified by the establishment of a Bench of five judges constituted by Chief Justice

Nazim Hussain Siddiqui to determine whether reduction in the retirement age for judges

was constitutional or not. This was clearly designed to block your appointment. I was

against the idea of Mr. Amirul Mulk Mengal being made the Chief Justice before you. Within

the limits of my influence (which I readily admit to be very limited), I was totally for you to

become the Chief Justice. Justice Javed Buttar is aware of my position, as is the Attorney

General of Pakistan. The accelerated issue of the notification appointing you the ChiefJustice put Justice Siddiquis move to rest.I believed that you were vigorous, capable of lifting up the Supreme Court, creating an

espirit-de-corps among your brother judges, restoring the dignity and grandeur of the apex

Court, particularly considering the long tenure before you.

Alas this has not come about.

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Yet this aggression is not for everyone. When Mr. Sharifuddin Pirzada appears, your

Lordships demeanour and appearance is not just sugar and honey. You are obsequious tothe point of meekness. So apart from violating our dignity, which the Constitution

commands to be inviolable, we suffer discrimination in your Court.

I am not raising the issue of verbal onslaughts and threats to Police Officers and other Civil

Servants, who have the misfortune to be summoned, degraded and reminded that This isthe Supreme Court.

The way in which My Lord conducts proceedings is not conducive to the process of justice.

In fact, it obstructs due process and constitutes contempt of the Supreme Court itself.

I am pained at the wide publicity to cases taken up by My Lord in the Supreme Court under

the banner of Fundamental Rights. The proceedings before the Supreme Court can

conveniently and easily be referred to the District and Sessions Judges. I am further pained

by the media coverage of the Supreme Court on the recovery of a female. In the bar room,

this is referred to as a Media Circus.

My Lord, this communication may anger you and you are in any case prone to get angry in a

flash, but do reflect upon it. Perhaps you are not cognizant of what your brother judges feel

and say about you.My Lord, before a rebellion arises among your brother judges (as in the case of Mr. Justice

Sajjad Ali Shah), before the Bar stands up collectively and before the entire matter is placed

before the Supreme Judicial Council, there may be time to change and make amends.

I hope you have the wisdom and courage to make these amends and restore serenity, calm,

compassion, patience and justice tempered with mercy to my Supreme Court.

My Lord, we all live in the womb of time and are judged, both by the present and by history.

The judgement about you, being rendered in the present, is adverse in the extreme.

Yours faithfully,

NAEEM BOKHARI

Advocate

Supreme Court of

Pakistan

Islamabad, Pakistan