Prime Minister Vs Chief Justice

Law Courts in a Glass House

An Autobiography

Sajjad Ali Shah

Oxford University Press (Karachi)

835 pages/Rs 795

The author of this book retired as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. During his term, the Court had a major confrontation with the government of Nawaz Sharief. As the man at the centre of that run-in, Sajjad Ali Shah provides a fascinating account of what actually happened. One must hope that Nawaz Sharief, now that he has been relieved of the cares and burdens of high office, will also put down his version while he bides his time in exile.

 

It all started with Mr Sharief saying some nasty things about the Supreme Court. That led to a contempt action and so on until the Chief Justice and the Prime Minister were in a direct, head-to-head confrontation. This included a move to have Justice Shah removed on the grounds that when he was appointed the chief justice, he was not the senior-most judge in the Court.

It was then suggested to Chief Justice Shah that he should go on leave for the remaining 80 days of his tenure. He refused. Even the President was asked to intervene by denotifying the appointment of Shah but he refused.

The result was a constitutional crisis, which Shah (he was from Sind and that perhaps hides its own clues) eventually lost. He was forced out and went on leave and then retired. In the end, amazingly enough, it was his own brother judges who turned against the chief justice.

As he puts it,