PM leaving CJ on trial

THE Opposition United National Congress (UNC) is accusing Prime Minister Patrick Manning of “leaving the Judiciary and Chief Justice under trial,” while he (Manning) jetted off to Spain to attend a gas conference when in fact, he should be addressing this and other critical issues. UNC Senator Wade Mark, speaking at a press conference yesterday at the party’s Charles Street office in Port-of-Spain, said it has been a month since Manning made his statement in the Senate, indicating investigations were underway to ascertain if Chief Justice Sat Sharma should be brought before a tribunal. However, Mark noted that the PM had instead gone “on a joyride” to Spain to attend a gas conference, having “said nothing to the country in terms of what is he going to do with the Chief Justice. So the whole Judiciary is on trial.”

“Mr Manning and the PNM have the Chief Justice on trial and the entire Judiciary on trial in this country. He has gone to a gas conference when he ought to be addressing this nation that that particular matter should either be discontinued or if he want to take it forward, take it forward,” Mark said. He insisted the PM and PNM were playing “politics and footsy with the office of the Chief Justice,” saying that the office was not an ordinary one, but an arm of the State.

He also encouraged the PM, “if he cannot find evidence to persuade him, Mr Manning must discontinue that harassment on the Chief Justice and the entire Judiciary of this country.” Mark also accused the PNM of having Sharma “under PNM-inspired surveillance over the last year.” Manning left for Spain on Friday to attend Gastech 2005 and is expected to return next Friday. Manning confirmed to the Senate on February 14, that he was investigating reports against Chief Justice Sat Sharma.

He said he was on a fact-finding mission and “must be slow to act, only after a thorough examination of the facts.” However, the PM has been in receipt of statements from all parties involved in the matter for the last two weeks. It has been anticipated that he would have announced if he was then going to advise the President to appoint a tribunal to investigate allegations of misconduct made by Attorney General John Jeremie and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Geoffrey Henderson, against Sharma.