The protest continues. The indignation and disgust that the nation felt has not subsided. Memberships of lawyers and ministers who gave statements against the Chief Justice continue to be cancelled by bar associations. After the huge response from the bar, action from the benches (judges) has also started trickling through. A Civil Judge somewhere from Bahawalpur (source: Aaj TV) has resigned in protest.

Is there a precedent of such commotion at this scale before ? When Pakistan was dismembered in 1971, there was a disgusting quiet in West Pakistan. People took this as an act of fate that was bound to happen. When Bhutto was hanged, no one moved. Not even his die-hard fans. When various governments were dismissed by military or Presidents supported by military, the acts elicited no more of an interest than a morning coffee discussion over the news headlines.

But this time it is different. People are reacting. The PM has cut short his visit to return to Pakistan this evening. A sure sign of panic in government ranks. Scared voices from within the government (Pervez Elahi, for one) have already started saying that this government will not fall because of their recent action.

Justice (ret) Fakhruddin Ibrahim, a respected man who has surely seen many ups and downs in the country, has described the situation aptly. With his voice shaking with sincerity and emotion, he implored everyone to realize that this is a “defining moment” for the people of this country.

Reference: http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=6496

Listen yourself (real player required): http://www.voanews.com/real/voa/sca/urdu/urdu1700a.ram

THE NEWS - ISLAMABAD: Federal Law Minister Wasi Zafar repeatedly hurled naked abuse in a live Voice of America (VoA) radio discussion on chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s deposition, which was heard worldwide on Monday night.There were three participants in the telephonic discussion — Wasi Zafar, constitutional expert Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan and Ansar Abbasi, Editor Investigations, The News, Islamabad.Ansar joined the talk a bit late and said he fears to say anything because of Wasi Zafar’s peculiar temperament and track record. As he uttered these remarks, the law minister came in and said whoever gives him a “big arm”, he would do the same to his family.

As Wasi Zafar heard Ansar joining the programme, he lost his cool and started hurling abuse. He was angered because of a story headlined “Law minister facing long arm of the law” that Ansar had filed and was published in The News on August 13, 2005. It said the prime minister and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain would decide the fate of the law minister for his son’s thrashing of a PIA passenger in his presence at the Karachi airport.

Earlier in the programme, Aitzaz Ahsan had also threatened to break off due to the foul language of the law minister. But he was persuaded by the host to continue. Ansar regretted the repetition of the abuse by Wasi Zafar and said the world was listening to the kind of language the minister was using.

A caller from Pishin, Naeem Taseer, also wondered what question should be asked from this kind of a minister. Later, Wasi Zafar vehemently denied on Geo that he hurled any abuse on the VoA programme. However, the audio played by the TV network gave a lie to his assertion.

The minister again poured his anger on Ansar, saying he was corrupt and a blackmailer, who gets money for his stories. In the same programme, Ansar said there was a serious problem in the minister’s personality. He said the high-ups should take notice of such buffoons who are bringing a bad name to Pakistan.

The other day, the Jaranwala Bar Association cancelled Wasi Zafar’s basic membership and recommended to the Pakistan Bar Council that his licence should be revoked. Wasi Zafar earned notoriety when he threatened a chairman of the Capital Development Authority, who had refused to give a concession to him regarding an industrial plot. He and his sons had also thrashed a person at the Karachi airport in 2005, who objected to the minister’s sons jumping the queue. Later, he slapped a waiter of a five-star hotel in Islamabad over a trivial matter.

Credit: Pak Law Blog

_{Start of Statement}

The SJC on having gone through record passed an order detrimental against my interest and against the interest of institution whereby I have been restrained to work as supreme court judge and chief justice of Pakistan.

Such powers are not available at all to a facts finding inquiry commission/council as such powers are available to courts and can be derived only from the constitutional provisions and the law.

In my understanding and as per the interpretation of the constitution under article 209 no such powers are available to the council as it is not exercising the power of the court.

Be that as it may by passing restrained order by the council as well as the earlier order notified in notification no 529/(2)/2007 issued by the president of Pakistan which is equally contrary to the constitution I have suffered as under

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