Islamabad: Chief Justice Umar Atta Bandial has expressed strict response on speeches of bar councils while he urged to stop leveling accusations on judges and name the person who you have an objection.
Chief Justice Pakistan Umar Atta Bandial on Friday addressed a full court reference which was held on the retirement of the SC Judge Justice Qazi Ameen.
Chief Justice Umar Atta Bandial said that calling judges paid servants and levelled allegations by vice-chairman Pakistan Bar Council is highly inapropriate. He said that judges of the SC are highly qualified and proffesionals
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial took exception to “unnecessary” criticism directed at him, saying the prerogative to constitute benches historically lay with the chief justice.
Justice Bandial said the chief justice had been forming benches for the last 20 years. “Why are objections raised without any reason?”
He said it is the chief justice who decides which case will be fixed for hearing and which bench will take it up. “If someone has an objection, come and talk to me.”
He went on to say that judges must not be targeted on the basis of hearsay since they cannot respond to criticism. “One can criticise judgments, but not judges.”
The statement from the top judge comes two days after his colleague and the senior most judge on the SC after him, Justice Qazi Faez Isa, wrote a three-page letter to the CJP, questioning the formation of benches without incorporating senior judges.
