Musharraf cronies, PPP backing Asma to beat Pak CJ loyalists in SCBA polls
By ANIWednesday, October 27, 2010
ISLAMABAD - With the crucial Supreme Court Bar Association polls taking place today, old cronies of former president Pervez Musharraf are pinning strong hopes on candidate Asma Jahangir to bundle out the loyalists of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry by winning the election.
Asma, who had earlier fought for the restoration of the judges, has now become a strong critic of the Supreme Court, more in line with the position taken by President Zardari and his PPP government, The News reported.
Though she presents herself as an independent candidate, the government’s overt and covert support to her candidature has served her badly because of its own unending confrontation with the judiciary, the paper said.
The judges who had taken oath under the Provisional Constitutional Ordinance (PCO) of Pervez Musharraf are also canvassing for her. The presence of Federal Law Minister Babar Awan, a close aide of President Asif Zardari, in Lahore has also raised many eyebrows in the legal community, who believe that the minister has come there to make “arrangements” for Asma’s election, it added.
Though Asma had earlier supported the lawyers’ movement and the restoration of judges, she changed her stance soon after the formation of the PPP government and became a harsh critic of the Supreme Court, and has been making some anti-judiciary statements especially in response to its December 16, 2009 judgment, which not only declared Musharraf’s November 3 emergency as illegal and unconstitutional but also sent the Dogar court judges home.
While the lawyers are taking a serious note of the shift in her stand, interestingly, Iqbal Haider, who had worked with her in the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, is openly labeling her as the government-backed candidate.
On the other hand, the second candidate for the position of SCBA President- Ahmad Awais- has always appreciated the apex court judgments in all his statements, which have gone well with the lawyers, the media and the civil society in general, the paper said. (ANI)
