Islamabad: The government has objected to the presence of the Chief Justice in the larger bench formed to hear the petition against the Audio Leaks Commission.
In the Supreme Court, a five-member larger bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Atta Bandial, Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Shahid Waheed and Justice Azhar Rizvi is hearing the petitions of Imran Khan and others against the Audiolex Commission.
At the beginning of the hearing, the Attorney General objected to the inclusion of the Chief Justice in the bench and said that the request is that the Chief Justice should not be a part of this bench. As a protector of human rights, don’t interfere with our administrative authority, we respect the government completely.
Justice Umar Atta Bandial said that your request is respectable but the post of Chief Justice is a constitutional post, I knew you would raise this objection, the judiciary is not subordinate to the federal government and there is a division of powers in the constitution.
The Chief Justice said that the government hastily enacted legislation to regulate the powers of the Chief Justice, how the government can select judges for its own purposes.