ISLAMABAD - Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar assured on Thursday that there would be no judicial martial law and every effort would be foiled as long as he was in office.
The chief justice also pledged that he would rather prefer to go home instead of endorsing any undemocratic move.
Reiterating his support for continuation of democracy in the country, he said that there was no such space for martial law in the constitution.
Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar was addressing an event of Supreme Court Bar Association held here for renaming of the auditorium at the Supreme Court Bar Association building after the late human rights lawyer Asma Jahangir.
The chief justice said that he would be the first person to foil any attempt of imposition of martial law, for, the constitution did not allow such moves.
“I can laugh only when somebody talks about ‘judicial takeover,” the CJP said and assured that election will be held on time and nobody could even think about its delay as well.
There would be no delay in holding of forthcoming general elections as the constitution did not allow such delays and this constitutional obligation would be ensured in letter and spirit.
The chief justice also paid rich tributes to late Asma Jahangir with regard to her legal profession as well as her services for the cause of humanity and promoting humanitarian efforts by helping out the needy and poor people.
Meanwhile, the chief justice directed advocate general Punjab and inspector general of police to appear before the court on Saturday (tomorrow) at Lahore Registry at 9 am in a human rights case about alleged murder of a minor girl in Jaranawala and murder of a journalist in Sambrial.
The chief justice directed its office to fix the instant matter for hearing before the court on April 7 at Branch Registry Lahore at 9 am and directed both the officers to ensure their appearance before it.
On April 3, the chief justice had taken notice of rape and murder of a seven-year-old minor Mubashira.
The mother of seven-year-old had requested the chief justice to take notice of her daughter’s murder and said the police were not cooperating with the family.
Taking notice of it, the chief justice had sought a report from inspector general of Punjab police within 48 hours.
A day ago, the notice regarding murder of a journalist Zeeshan Butt was taken on the application of Press Association of Supreme Court during hearing of a case about non-payment of salaries to journalists.
Butt was allegedly gunned down by a PML-N UC chairman Imran Cheema a week ago in Union Council Begowala.
He was working on a story about the imposition of a tax on local shopkeepers by the union council. UC Chairman Imran Cheema was reportedly irked by Butt’s investigation.
