120 judges have taken oath under PCO: Qayyum
By Adnan Rafique

ISLAMABAD—Attorney General Malik Muhammad Qayyum said in the Supreme Court here Thursday that a total of 120 judges have taken oath under the past and present Provisional Constitution Order during the country's history.
The former judges now criticizing others who were sworn in under the PCO issued on November 3 had themselves taken oath under PCO more than one time in the past, the Attorney General said. They included deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Rana Bhagwandas, Mian Shakirullah Jan, Khalilur Rehman Ramday and others, he said, while presenting his arguments on petitions against the emergency.
The Attorney General said the deposed judges were making all sorts of claims while more than months after their short order in July about reinstatement of Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry they were not able to issue a detailed judgement giving reasons. "Now they are busy issuing various kinds of orders from their homes but these have no legal worth," he said.
Qayyum said the flood of suo motu cases before the emergency resulted in relegation of cases pending for decades to the back burner and pointed out that although the court had no jurisdiction to suspend or transfer officers yet this practice was followed with impunity. He said the government was left with no option but to take extra constitutional measures because the security situation had deteriorated amid a wave of attacks.
Qayyum said some 150 people were killed at the Karachi homecoming rally of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, whom he described as a leader of international fame. To a question by the court, he said the economy had also suffered grievously due to the law and order situation but after the emergency the economy had been improving along with the security situation.
Intervening, the President's counsel Sharifuddin Pirzada told the court that the National Assembly had already ratified the emergency proclamation through a resolution. The Attorney General said some of the deposed judges had been making personal gains through misuse of their position and claimed that one of them purchased a house worth 20 million rupees only at a price of 4 million rupees through a banking court judge, who was given extension in service in return.