Dogar gets the lawyers he deserves

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

ISLAMABAD: As the legal fraternity refused to defend former chief justice of Pakistan Abdul Hamid Dogar in the contempt case in the Supreme Court, including the Pirzadas and Malik Qayyum, once considered lieutenants of Mush-Dogar camp, the ex-CJ found Naeem Bokhari and Ahmed Raza Kasuri on his side.

Both the lawyers are known as loyalists of Musharraf and the symbol of hate among the lawyers’ community for their deep association with the ousted dictator.They have continuously been accused in the past of hatching conspiracies against the country’s independent judiciary.

One excited lawyer even blackened the face of Kasuri in the Supreme Court while Naeem Bokhari was beaten up by a large number of lawyers during their movement.Naeem Bokhari was held as the major person responsible for initiating the judicial crisis in Pakistan on March 9, 2007 when all the points of a reference filed by the then military dictator against the chief justice were found to be the same as written in Bokhari’s open letter to the Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry a few days before the filing of this reference. Former attorney general Malik Qayyum told The News a few days back that Abdul Hameed DogarAbdul Hameed Dogar had requested him to become his lawyer but he refused.

Qayyum also said that senior lawyers Abdul Hafeez Pirzada and Sharifuldin Pirzada had already rejected similar requests. Both Bokhari and Kasuri were much closer to Dogar than anyone else. According to legal circles, they were not contacted by Dogar in the first step to avoid disclosure of conspiracy but on refusal of all the lawyers of the country, he was left with no option but to choose Bokhari and Kasuri.

On Tuesday, during the press conference, all the major points raised by Abdul Hameed Dogar were continuously being fed by Bokhari, who was sitting on his left. Naeem Bokhari was unavailable. However, Kasuri during a chat with this scribe said that in fact Dogar was unable to speak clearly and was unable to clarify some points.

Asked whether it was the result of presenting distorted facts, Kasuri said that he would defend arguments in this case in court and everything would become clear.When Kasuri was asked when every lawyer in the country had refused to take Dogar’s case, why he opted to defend him on points which had already been decided and overwhelmingly declared as wrong, Kasuri said that throughout his life he had supported and helped the underdogs of the society and he opted to defend Dogar with the same spirit.

Kasuri said when everyone had left Musharraf, he was with Musharraf and now when everyone had left Dogar, he was with him. Asked whether it would be right to defend someone who was fighting on wrong and unconstitutional points under this philosophy, Kasuri replied that he was a professional lawyer and decided to defend Dogar for the same reason.

Kasuri claimed that on November 3rd 2007, emergency was imposed at 3 pm in the day and according to the PCO all the judges of superior judiciary ceased to hold office at the same time and that there was no significance of the Nov 3rd seven-member bench verdict.

Kasuri said that he didn’t know about any new conspiracy against the independent judiciary and was fighting the case as a professional lawyer when asked whether the proper launching of Dogar through the media was start of some new conspiracy.