The court made this observation when Attorney General Makhdoom Ali Khan opposed maintainability of the Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry's petition in the Supreme Court, saying it is redundant because it raises issues that are already pending in the Supreme Judicial Council.
The court said "we have all respect for our seniors who are members of the SJC, and feel handicapped without them, but under Article 209 (6) SJC is an inquiry tribunal which can only give its opinion on a reference whether the judge has been guilty of misconduct."
It said that a number of issues have been raised in these petitions which are beyond the competence/jurisdiction of the SJC and need to be resolved for the sake of posterity.
Earlier leading counsel for the President and the Federation, Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada opposed admissibility of the petition as it is not competent and the proceedings of SJC cannot be questioned in any court under Article 211 of the constitution.
He further stated that the petitions are premature since the SJC has not completed its inquiry and sent its report to the President for orders. He further argued under Article 248, President Musharraf is immune from legal action, therefore, he cannot be named as a respondent and his name be deleted from the petition.
He also gave a resume of the evolution of the Supreme Judicial Council during the past six decades and its decisions about five judges of the superior courts whose cases were referred to it. Counsel for the Federation Malik Maqbool Elahi also opposed maintainability of the petition under article 184 (3) as no fundamental right of the petitioner has been violated.
Other counsel engaged by the government to respond to nearly two dozen constitution petitions challenging validity, vires and legality of filing a reference against the Chief Justice of Pakistan, appointment of an acting Chief Justice, jurisdiction and constitution of the Supreme Judicial Council etc will address the full court on Thursday on the question admissibility of these petitions.
The 13-member full court headed by Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday includes Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi, Justice Faqir Mohammad Khokhar, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice M. Javed Buttar, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Justice Sayed Saeed Asshad, Justice Nasirul Malik, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmad, Justice Chaudhry Ejaz Ahmad, Justice Sayed Jamshed Ali and two ad hoc judges, Justice Hamid Ali Mirza and Justice Ghulam Rabbani.