By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: Most of the Supreme Court judges, including the Chief Justice of Pakistan, who have refused to take oath under the provisional constitutional order (PCO) issued by the chief of the Army staff on Saturday, are presently held incommunicado.
Although, no one, including newsmen and even the judges' own relatives or acquaintances, is allowed to enter the Judges Colony and meet any of these judges, this tight security has failed to block access to these honourable judges by some privileged people.
“Have we committed a robbery? We cannot get out of our residence and find heavy security conducting our surveillance and blocking our way out,” the judge was quoted as saying, adding that they had been isolated from the outside world.
But the “privileged angels” who met the judges found them in high morale but at a complete loss to understand why they had been detained and treated like criminals. Justice Javed Iqbal, who was offered to take oath as the Chief Justice of Pakistan under the PCO but refused to do so, is all alone in his official residence.
A source, who talked to this honourable judge, told this correspondent that some close relatives of this respected Supreme Court judge wanted to visit him but they were refused access. “We are neither allowed to go out nor is anyone permitted to visit us,” the source quoted Justice Iqbal as saying.
Another respected judge of the apex court has been quoted by one of the angels as lamenting, “Look what is happening to Pakistan. God knows where are we heading? Is this the democracy and the high standards that we talk about?”
About the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, an angel deputed to cover him informed this correspondent that he was said to be in the post-March 9 like situation although this time at least one of his residence telephone lines is still operational. Like other defiant judges, seen by the masses as their heroes, the chief justice and his family members are not allowed to get out of their houses. They are also not permitted to have any visitors.
These judges did not get the newspapers on Sunday while they also don’t have any access to the private television channels like other parts of Pakistan – thanks to Pemra (Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority). The internet connection (DSL) has also been removed, according to one angel, who revealed that on Saturday, generally described as Black Saturday, Justice Raja Fayyaz, who was coming back to his official residence after attending a wedding reception was even blocked and denied entry to the Judges Colony where he lives.
The honouable judge contacted his wife, who after quite a hassle succeeded to get her spouse to enter his own residence. There were some rumours making the round in the capital on Sunday that some of these judges including the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry were manhandled but no such incident was confirmed by those angels, who have the access to these judges.
One of the angels was pleased to share that most of the judges are now far more religious and spend a lot of their time in praying. An angel, who talked to the Chief Justice, advised Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry that during these testing times he should respond precisely the way Almighty Allah expects from the faithful.
One of the defiant judges talked about the turning down by the seven-member bench of the Supreme Court on Saturday evening of the PCO and barred the president and prime minister from taking any action contrary to the independence of judiciary. The said order of the bench, in view of one of the detained judges, seemed to have infuriated the powers that be. The said judge said that the time would come when the same order would have a decisive role in deciding the fate of many.
One of these angels was asked by one of the detained judges as to how the world was reacting to Saturday’s episode and their decision not to take oath under the PCO. “Will the people of Pakistan react the way they had reacted to the March 9 suspension of the Chief Justice?” the angel was asked but he had no clear answer to offer.
