Ishaq Dar files petition in SC for early hearing of appeal

PML-N leader Senator Ishaq Dar. — AFP/File

LONDON: Former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has filed an application in the Supreme Court requesting for an early hearing of the appeal which has been pending before the court since 2018. Senator-elect Dar has filed the application through his lawyers. He had originally filed an appeal in 2018 against his declaration as a proclaimed offender by accountability court. The latest application in the Supreme Court of Pakistan is requesting intervention by the apex court to consider his case on merit. According to his lawyers, Senator-elect Dar was first "blacklisted" by the Directorate General of Immigration and Passports without any basis or justification on July 24,2018. That step practically banned the passport authorities in Pakistan and the Pakistani missions overseas from issuing a passport to Dar.  Dar’s valid passport was then cancelled by Imran Khan's government on September 06, 2018. The action was taken despite Dar's written request for issuance of a requisite passport, being a necessity and a fundamental right for the purposes of travelling. He maintained that it was a draconian step which violated his basic human rights. The factum of cancellation of the passport came into Dar’s knowledge through media reporting on September 09, 2018, during his medical treatment in the United Kingdom. "The cancellation of Dar’s passport was a violation of law and human rights by Imran Khan government as a result of which the Senator was stranded in the UK from September 2018 onwards, which made it impossible for Dar to travel to Pakistan even if his health condition had improved," Senator-elect Dar’s legal teams said. In May 2022, Dar received his new passport in London which had been issued by Passport Authorities in Islamabad on April 26, 2022.

Source https://www.globalcourant.com/ishaq-dar-files-petition-in-sc-for-early-hearing-of-appeal/?feed_id=14362&_unique_id=6303c657b2e9f

Legal groups petition Ramaphosa to not suspend Judge Hlope following JSC recommendation

Judge President John Hlope asks questions during interviews for the deputy judge president position in the Western Cape division of the High Court on 6 April 2016.

PHOTO: Trevor Samson/Gallo Images

• A group of legal practitioners wants to petition President Cyril Ramaphosa from suspending Judge President John Hlophe.
• The petition comes as Ramaphosa is considering acting against Hlophe, who was found guilty of gross misconduct by the Judicial Service Commission.
• Meanwhile, the Black People's National Crisis Committee is planning a march to Parliament on Thursday in support of Hlophe.

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Judge President John Hlophe should remain in office, say a group of lawyers and legal practitioners who joined forces in support of the embattled judge president of the Western Cape division of the High Court.

Project 27 and the Black People's National Crisis Committee (BPNCC) intend to petition President Cyril Ramaphosa not to suspend Hlophe.

This follows a recommendation by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) that Hlophe be suspended, pending a vote in the National Assembly on whether or not he should be impeached.

Advocate Fairuz Seria said Project 27 intends to hand over the petition on Thursday to Parliament.

The petition argues that Hlophe has defended transformation policies for 27 years and has opened doors for black legal practitioners to have access to the legal profession in the Western Cape.

The petition reads:

A recommendation now to suspend a judge, taking into account the Cape’s first black jurist with the deepest footprints of transformation in the legal profession, would be improper and would, ironically, undermine the very administration of justice and independence of the legal profession for which we all strive.

Meanwhile, the BPNCC will be marching to Parliament on Thursday.

"Any intended move for suspension does not serve the interest of justice," said the organisation's campaign coordinator, Chumani Maxwele.

Helen Suzman Foundation executive director Nicole Fritz said a suspension should not be seen as a "punitive" measure, but as a means to protect the integrity of the judicial system, News24 reported previously.

"If you have very serious charges which are being faced by a judicial officer, even if they have not yet been established, you don't necessarily want the judicial officer holding judicial office," she said at the time. 

READ | Warning of untold damage: Former ConCourt justices adamant Hlophe must be sent packing

"They (the judge) might be able to use that office to prejudice the procedure. These disciplinary proceedings may also taint the exercise of their (the judge's) powers, which might put them into question later on and so in the public's interest, it is best that they step aside," Fritz said.

The JSC found Hlophe guilty of seeking to influence Constitutional Court justices Bess Nkabinde and Chris Jafta to violate their oaths of office in favour of former president Jacob Zuma.

At the time, Zuma was challenging the legality of warrants used by the later-disbanded Scorpions to seize 93 000 pages of corruption trial evidence against him, linked to the State's arms deal case.

Evidence led at the JSC tribunal tasked with investigating Hlophe revealed he had told Nkabinde and Jafta that Zuma was being persecuted just as he (Hlophe) had been persecuted.

He also told both justices he believed the Supreme Court of Appeal, which upheld the legality of the warrants in a majority ruling, had "got it wrong".

Ultimately, the tribunal found that Hlophe had embarked on a premeditated campaign to influence Jafta and Nkabinde in their evaluation of Zuma's case, including telling Nkabinde there was no case against Zuma and people would lose their jobs when he became president.

It recommended Hlophe should face impeachment, which paved the way for the JSC's recommendation that he be suspended.

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Source https://www.globalcourant.com/legal-groups-petition-ramaphosa-to-not-suspend-judge-hlope-following-jsc-recommendation/?feed_id=9348&_unique_id=62f49f7e70144

Pro-democracy petition fetches over 500,000 signatures in Brazil

More than half a million people ink petition in "defence of democracy" after Brazil’s President Bolsonaro attacks the South American country's election and judicial systems.

Bolsonaro, who came to power in 2019, has regularly attacked the electronic voting system in use since 1996, sparking fears he may not accept the result if he loses the October vote. (Reuters Archive)

More than half a million people have signed a petition in "defence of democracy" in Brazil in response to President Jair Bolsonaro's attacks on public institutions and the electoral system.

With the presidential election just two months away, in which Bolsonaro trails former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in opinion polls, the petition launched by members of the faculty of law at the University of Sao Paulo had passed 546,000 signatures midway through Saturday.

"We are going through a moment of great peril for normal democracy, a risk for the republic's institutions and insinuations about not respecting the election results," the petition's authors wrote, without ever mentioning Bolsonaro.

Among them were former supreme court judges and several artists, including well-known singer Chico Buarque.

"Unfounded and unproven attacks have brought into question the electoral process and the democratic state of law achieved with such a great struggle by Brazilian society," the petition reads.

"Threats against other powers ... incitement to violence and institutional rupture are intolerable."

Bolsonaro on voter fraud possibility 

Bolsonaro, who came to power in 2019, has regularly attacked the electronic voting system in use since 1996, sparking fears he may not accept the result if he loses.

Recent opinion polls have seen him trail Lula, president from 2003-10, by a large margin.

Other signatories included the banking federation and the influential federation of Sao Paulo industries.

Those are seen as significant given Bolsonaro garnered much support from the business sector ahead of his election four years ago.

Bolsonaro has been defiant, saying in a speech earlier this week: "We are for transparency, legality, we respect the constitution."

Source: AFP

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