'Behave or you'll be made judge in Pakistan'

ISLAMABAD: A naughty child can be threatened with being made "a judge if he is mischievous and chief justice if he is more mischievous," a senior Supreme Court judge has said.

This observation was made by Justice Khalilur Rahman Ramday, who is presiding over the 13-member full court of the Supreme Court hearing the constitutional petition of suspended chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the Daily Times said.

The day-to-day reporting of the celebrated case reveals frequent humorous exchanges in the court amidst serious debate on legal and constitutional issues.

If the treatment being meted out to judges in Pakistan continued, people would start frightening their children by saying, "If you make mischief, you'll be made a judge and if you make even more mischief you'll be made the chief justice", Ramday said.

The court is hearing Chaudhry's case even as many lawyers on Thursday completed 62 days of their token boycott of courts to protest against his suspension March 9 by President Pervez Musharraf, accusing him of misusing office to promote his son.

The president's action has triggered nationwide protests. Chaudhry's attempt to address bar colleagues in Karachi May 12 led to riots, killing 48 people.

The government made a presidential reference of Chaudhry's case to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC). But the Supreme Court barred the SJC from conducting its proceedings, admitting a clutch of petitions filed by Chaudhry and those filed on his behalf.

When two judges who are on this bench attended a lunch with the government lawyers, it became a serious debating issue with Chaudhry's lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, objecting to it.

The judges responded by saying they were merely socialising and a good judge would not be influenced by a meal.

The lunch episode continues to reverberate in the court where on Wednesday Ahsan again referred to it, The News said.

Arguing before the court, Ahsan said he had opted not to object to the conduct of any of the judges on the bench, though he was "under tremendous pressure" to file his objections against the two judges who had lunch with two top legal aides of the government.

Ahsan, a barrister known for his wits, told the court that all the judges included in the bench have the "burden of the Cross on their shoulders but the two judges have the heavier burden of Cross on their shoulders".

To this Justice Ramday responded wittily that on his shoulder it was "not the burden of the Cross but of the Crescent."

In an apparent reference to the continuing anti-government protest, Ahsan said he expected the court to see "what is happening outside the courtroom."

To this, Justice Ramday said that he "prayed that Allah Almighty do the good to them" and hoped that the atmosphere outside the courtroom should also be the same as it was inside.

Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi said that judges acted according to their conscience and that on the Day of Judgment everyone will be answerable for one's deeds.

Ahsan endorsed this, saying: "on the Day of Judgment we would be accountable for our deeds."