Pak govt tension with Chief Justice comes to a boil as SC registrar fired

Islamabad, April 4 (IANS) In a shocking development, the Pakistan cabinet threw its weight behind senior Supreme Court judge, Justice Qazi Faez Isa, instead of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, as it ordered removal of the top courts registrar as sought by Justice Isa after the registrar "disregarded" one of his orders at the behest of the top judge the other day.

The Establishment Division issued a notification after approval from the cabinet to remove registrar Ishrat Ali from his post, reports The Express Tribune.

He was directed to report to the Establishment Division.

The face-off between the federal government and CJP Bandial escalated soon after the top judge of the country continued hearing PTI's plea against the delay in holding elections in Punjab within the constitutional limit of 90 days despite the ruling coalition's reservations that later on pushed them to explicitly express no confidence in the CJP and two judges hearing the case with him, The Express Tribune reported.

Taking an advantage of the apparent schism between the CJP and some judges of the apex court, the federal cabinet hurriedly gathered at the Prime Minister's House on Monday evening in a special meeting convened to discuss the two-point agenda -- one being the removal of the SC registrar as desired by Justice Isa.

The special cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, considered the issue of registrar issuing a circular against the order of Justice Isa, The Express Tribune reported.

Following the discussion, the cabinet decided to withdraw the services of the registrar and directed him to report to the Establishment Division -- an apparent attempt to embarrass CJP and convey the message that things have reached a point of no return.