Judicial critic of Zia suspended

Press, 7 May 1980, Page 9

Judicial critic of Zia suspended

NZPA-Reuter Islamabad The Pakistan SupremeCourt judge who wrote a : dissenting minority judg-j ment opposing the con-,’ viction and death sentence' imposed on the former! Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, will face charges be-: fore a disciplinary tribunal later this month, legal, sources have said. They said Mr Justice Safdar Shah was ordered by Pa i kistan’s Chief Justice ’ (Mr! Anwar U 1 Haq) to go on leave last Thursday until ; May 13, when the supreme. I judicial council of seven' I judges hears his case. | The supreme judicial council is the senior body in! I Pakistan which hears com-i plaints concerning the pro-! fessional misconduct of! judges. A ruling by the council against Judge Safdar Shah would cost him his job. j The sources said that an! investigation into the judge found that his year of birth was recorded as 1922, yet when he was enrolled at a primary school, his parents gave 1920 as the year of his birth. The second charge was that no record could be found that he had passed his intermediate examination to enter law school. He graduated with a law- degree from Karachi University. , The investigation also! found that he was. dismissed! in 1941 while working as a ’ store clerk in Karachi for Burmah-Shell Oil. There,i were hints, but no recorc;: was found, that he had been;; sacked for misconduct. | The charges also mention! that he came from a doubt-11 ful background. His uncle; I was said to have killed his i father over a tribal dispute! t when Judge Safdar was al t child, but no court action ( was taken. i c

I The significance of the j, hearing is that the Supreme i| Court is expected in the ■I next few months to hear •I several petitions challenging > the legality of General Mo- ■; hammed Zia-Ul-Haq’s mar-tial-law Government. The Punjab Chief Justice! (Mr Maulvi Mushtaq) will . hear the petitions and an appeal is expected to be made ■ to the Supreme Court. I The case against Judge ! Safdar Shah stems from a Government investigation begun in December. 1978! ,when he and three other Su-i preme Court judges submitted a minority judgment .! against the Punjab High ’ Court's verdict that Bhutto j was guilty of complicity in I a political murder. ! The Supreme Court upheld ; the Punjab conviction and death sentence by five votes to four. i Earlier, in July, 1977, Mr ! Safdar Shah was a member, of the Supreme Court which temporarily sanctioned Gen-I , eral Zia’s military take-over; on the grounds that he had. promised to hold elections within 90 days of coming to! power. Meanwhile, the police ini Pakistan’s Baluchistan prov-i ince have arrested four, junior officials of the Centr-i ist Tehriq Istiqlal party ofj retired Air Marshal Asgharj Khan and issued warrants) for the arrest of the party’s; Baluchistan leadership, ’ai Tehriq spokesman has said. ! They face lashes and up, to 12 years in jail for ignor-j ing the ban on political, activity imposed by General - Zia last October. Air Marshal Asghar Khani was freed from six months! house arrest last month and, immediately launched a poli-i tical campaign in defiance of the martial law ban to force General Zia to hold a General Election.