Dr Abdul Wahid Soomro (MNA Pakistan Peoples Party)

ISLAMABAD: President Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Qazi Anwar on Tuesday returned a cheque, worth Rs1 million, earlier given to the association by Law Minister Babar Awan.
Speaking to media representatives outside the court, Anwar said accepting such an amount was creating doubts about his integrity.
He said Awan had offered him a cheque bearing Rs1 million for the welfare of the Supreme Court employees.
Qazi Anwar said a faction of the media had started a defamation campaign against him, and he had decided to return the cheque for this reason.
He then disposed off the cheque in front of media representatives.
Sources

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court reserved its verdict on the petition against Retired Supreme Court Justice Deedar Hussain Shah’s appointment as Chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).The court has reserved the verdict to determine whether the case requires a hearing.
The petitioner Javed Iqbal Jaffery claimed that he is more qualified than Deedar Hussain Shah for this post.
Jaffery further said that he has been practicing law since 53 years.
The petitioner maintained his earlier stance that the NAB Chairman’s appointment had been made on political grounds.
During the tenure of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, the appointment of police inspectors were made by taking two to four lac rupees and the practice still continues, Jaffery said. 

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday issued a “restraining order”, instructing the top functionaries of the government against taking any action to revoke the earlier notification about restoration of members of the superior judiciary.
The order by the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, was issued after an extra-ordinary hearing by a 17-member larger bench to review the news about any such government move, and after not receiving any satisfactory response from Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in this regard.
The “restraining order” was nothing short of a stern warning by the country’s highest court, as it declared that dismissing any judge through an executive order will not only be unconstitutional, it will be in violation of the Supreme Court’s judgement of July 31, and will amount to subversion of the Constitution, and an act of high treason.
The Chief Justice also issued instructions that the latest order be immediately dispatched to all functionaries of the government, suggesting that the President, Prime Minister and all top officials dealing with such issues be made aware of the consequences of any attempt to undermine the superior judiciary.
Earlier during the hearing on Friday morning the judges of the apex court expressed their serious concerns on the reports of a possible move by the government to withdraw the notification through which judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, who were dismissed by General Pervez Musharraf, were restored.
Even though the Attorney-General repeatedly informed the apex court judges that no such move was being contemplated by the government, and the hype was unnecessarily created by a section of the media, the Chief Justice asked for a written assurance by the Prime Minister. When the court reassembled after the break, it was informed by the Attorney-General that the Prime Minister was not available but the message had been conveyed to him through his staff. On that the judges expressed their extreme annoyance, prompting them to issue the “restraining order”.
The government was also asked through this order to come up with a satisfactory reply by October 18.
The high-drama revolving round the possible government move started late last night with a couple of television channels broadcasting news that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was planning to revoke the earlier notification. And even though Prime Minister Gilani and Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira had denied such reports, the apex court judges assembled in the court in the night, and in a post-midnight decision, set up a larger bench of 17 judges to take up the matter on Friday.
Sources

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday was hearing petitions challenging the 18th Amendment.
A 17-judge full court was hearing the petitions challenging certain clauses in the amendment.
During the hearing, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry said opening the Objectives Resolution’s Pandora’s box was not necessary.
He further said that the Supreme Court has made obvious the constitution's fundamental features through its decisions.
“The constitution represents 180 million people of Pakistan…any legislation in conflict with the constitution cannot be a law,” Chief Justice Iftikhar said.
Judiciary is neither a part of the government, nor is it the government’s subordinate, he said.