The Supreme Court of Pakistan this week clarified that Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had not supported the International Council of Jurists’ (ICJ) position that the recent impeachment of his Sri Lankan counterpart Shirani Bandaranayake was totally legal and in accordance with the prevalent laws of Sri Lanka.
Referring to an ICJ statement, the SCP issued a clarification that Mr. Justice Chaudhry had not supported the decision to remove Ms. Justice Bandaranayake. “Although Mr. Justice Chaudhry has been conferred the status of vice-president of the organisation, yet he has never ever supported such statement issued by ICJ.” The CJP is one of the several vice-presidents of ICJ.
In its statement issued earlier this month, the ICJ had said: “It is a coup de grace that destroys comprehensively, the theories by pseudo-legal experts of the Lawyers’ Collective etc., and other self appointed partisan ‘legal experts’, that the impeachment was somehow flawed, or illegal.
The reasoned opinion of ICJ also lays to rest questions about compliance with a Sri Lankan Supreme Court judgment on the issue, as that judgement was obviously flawed and unconstitutional as per the reasoning of these eminent jurists.”
