The Supreme Court has been approached to stop the pension of former Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry as he had formally launched a political party.
The Supreme Court has been approached to stop the pension of former Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry as he had formally launched a political party.
A citizen, Shahid Orakzai, filed a petition under the Article 184 (3) of Constitution questioning the payment of pension to the ex-CJ.
The petitioner said that the pension is to be paid to “an old judge rather than to a new politician. No political activist can draw the pension of a judge of the Supreme Court.”
Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry on December 25, 2015 launched a political party — Justice and Democratic Party. So far there is no big name in his party. The petition said that Justice Chaudhry launched the party after a two-year gap of his retirement which indicates his adherence to the constitutional provisions but “he may have misread the conditions imposed by the Constitution on the judges or, seemingly, intermixed them with restrictions on retiring civil servants”.
Shahid Orakzai said that no person could be a politician and a judge at the same time. Any person who acquires a position under the Political Parties Order, 2002, can no longer be treated as a retired judge of the Supreme Court. The ‘terms and conditions’ of Article 205 would not apply to him and his family thereafter, he added. The petitioner said the Supreme Court was duty bound to conserve each and every public rupee that is charged upon the Federal Consolidated Fund as expenditure of the Court and remuneration of its judges, both serving and retired. Mr Orakzai cautioned his petition does not require any discussion about any person and shall confine to the remuneration of judges under Article 205. The Court may, accordingly, instruct the Registrar to recover any sum commuted in advance by the former CJ.
