Pakistan's suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry (left) comforts Shadana Raza (centre) widow of Syed Hammad Raza, at her residence in Islamabad on Monday. Gunmen shot dead Raza, a senior official of Pakistan's Supreme Court at his home in Islamabad early on Monday. — Reuters photo

The ever-deepening judicial and political crisis engulfing Pakistan on Monday took some dramatic turns making it more complex.

A senior judge of the Supreme Court opted out of the Full Court, which was hearing constitutional petitions of the suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, forcing its immediate reconstitution before it could launch the planned day-to-day session.

Deputy registrar of the court, inducted in the SC by Justice Iftikhar a year ago, was murdered in the small hours of Monday morning. The trading community across the country responded with rare unity witnessed in recent decades to the shut down call by the Opposition parties in protest against Karachi killings, adding a new dimension to their anti-Musharraf campaign.

In Karachi, para-military Rangers seemed to have restored calm today after two days of bloody rioting that claimed at least 41 lives. Authorities had, reportedly, arrested nearly 400 people.

Dual Office Law challenged Qazi Hussain Ahmed, chief of the religious group Muttahida Majlise Amal (MMA) filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of Dual Office Law passed by the Parliament in 2004 to enable General Musharraf to retain his post as Army Chief along with that of the President reneging his solemn pledge made to the MMA and the nation in a TV speech that he would quit the army post within a year. Qazi told a meeting of the Supreme Court Bar Association here today that the MMA committed a grave blunder in facilitating the passage of 17th Amendment because it was duped by Musharraf.

Governor Ishratul Ebad called on the chief of Pakhtoon Nationalist Awami National Party. He sought his help for averting the situation from degenerating into ethnic strife between MQM and Pathans reminiscent of 1980s and early 1990s, whose signs were evident in the killings on Saturday and Sunday.

Justice Falak Sher quit the Full Court on plea that his representation contesting the seniority of Justice Iftikhar at the time of his elevation as Chief Justice, is still pending with the President. "This makes me a party in efforts to dislodge Iftikhar," he said adding that he does not want to leave an iota of doubt that his verdict on Justice Iftikhar's petitions was influenced by a bias and conflict of interest.

Justice Sher further dramatised the situation by giving in writing that he is the senior-most judge of the court and named several judges apart from Justice Iftikhar who have been allowed to bypass him.

Justice Iftikhar’s lead attorney, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan tried to dissuade Falak Sher to stay in the Full Court saying he and his client had full confidence in his impartiality and judgment despite his representation on seniority.

Falak Sher's claim rests on a legal point that seniority in the Supreme Court is to be determined from the date a judge joins the provincial high courts. Many law experts believes it is a suspect interpretation while insisting that seniority would be counted from date a judge is elevated to the Supreme Court.

The president judge of the Full Court, however, disbanded the 14-member bench and recommended its reconstitution after Falak Sher's refusal to sit there despite Chaudhry Aitzaz's statement. Acting Chief Justice Rana Bhagwandas acted promptly to reconstitute the bench dropping Falak Sher's name.

Justice Falak Sher is the second judge of the court to ease himself out on ethical grounds. Earlier, the presiding judge Sardar Raza Mohammad Khan of the 3-member full Bench, which had originally admitted the petitions quit, and recommended constitution of a larger bench to hear them.

Raza had contended that he was part of the five-member Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) which passed the controversial order of suspending the Chief Justice on March 9.

Tokyo, May 14
Japan today took the first major step towards rewriting its post-World War II pacifist Constitution, a top priority for the conservative premier as the country seeks a larger global role.

Parliament approved a Bill outlining procedures for a referendum on the first-ever revision of the US-imposed 1947 Constitution, which says Japan forever renounces the right to wage war.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, an outspoken conservative and the first Japanese leader born after World War II, has made rewriting the Constitution one of his top policy goals.

"We didn't have rules on how to amend the Constitution," chief government spokesman Yasuhisa Shiozaki said. "What is important is that the debate on the Constitution will become more active."

Japan already has one of the world's best-funded armed forces but euphemistically calls them the "Self-Defence Forces" due to the Constitution.

Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party is working on a draft outline of a new Constitution, although the legislation passed today says the referendum cannot take place before 2010.

The Bill, which says that a new Constitution needs to be

approved by a majority of voters, was passed by the upper house today after being cleared by the lower house last month. — AFP

Tokyo, May 14
The human eye is exposed to the largest amount of harmful ultraviolet light on any one day at around 9 a.m., according to a recent joint research by Johnson & Johnson K.K. and Kanazawa Medical University.

The research team examined the amount of UV light to which a sensor in the eyes of a dummy was exposed for one day in each of September and November.

According to the September results, the amount peaked at 0.05 volt at around 9 a.m., followed by 0.04 volt between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.

The figures were higher than 0.025 volt between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., the hours during which the sun is usually considered the strongest.

The researchers say people on their way to work or school in the morning are exposed to much UV radiation and the exposure is lower at midday as the sun is high overhead.

A similar trend is expected to be seen from spring through autumn, according to the researchers. In November, peak UV ray exposure came around noon, they added.

Hiroshi Sasaki, a professor of ophthalmology at the university, urged people to protect their eyes from UV rays by wearing a hat and sunglasses. — Kyodo