CJP urges courts to stay out of politics

The Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has reiterated that the Supreme Court (SC) is custodian of the constitution. He urged that the courts must not be dragged into politics. CJP said this while hearing petitions challenging the 18th amendment. The petitions are being heard by a 17-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. The Chief Justice also said that the president is the head of the state and parliament must keep him updated on all state matters. He clarified that according to Article 46 the Prime Minister is not under the President.Watan partys lawyer Barrister Zafarullah has alleged that only six people are influencing on every decision of the parliament. He said that only one amongst the six is a graduate, while the rest of them were foreign nationals. He told the court that the 18 Amendment had changed one third of the constitution. Rawalpindi District Bar lawyer Ikram Chaudhry has termed it is unfair to close down internal party elections. He alleged that a number of controversial amendments have been approved from the parliament. He said that the 18th amendment was intentionally not presented for debate in the parliament. He advised Ikram Chaudhry to withdraw his arguments related to Article 64.