News
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Government in hot water over new contempt law* PBC shows reservations on some clauses
* Government contacts PBC leadership, vows to honour their stance
By Hasnaat Malik
ISLAMABAD: The federal government is going through a tough time regarding the Contempt of Court Act 2012 as a five-member bench of the Supreme Court (SC), headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry, will take up 27 various petitions against the new law.
It has been witnessed that a highest number of petitioners have approached the SC regarding any matter for the first time.
The Pakistan Bar Council also moved a petition on Saturday for declaring several clauses of the act null and void.
Talking to Daily Times, Latif Afridi, counsel for the PBC, confirmed that he had filed a petition under Article 184(3) of the constitution against the law.
He also said that in view of Article 8 of the constitution the court could declare void any law, which would be against fundamental rights. Afridi said that there were certain clauses, which were contrary to the constitution.
Meanwhile, it has been learnt that the federal government had also contacted the PBC leadership for getting their stance about the contempt law. It was also learnt that the government would honour the PBC’s recommendations in this regard.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister Fawad Chaudhry had confirmed that the government was in contact with the PBC members to get their support about the contempt law.
“If the PBC will give recommendations regarding the amendment in new contempt law then we will follow its advice,” he added.
Objecting to the court’s proceedings regarding the contempt of court law, Chaudhry said that acceptance of petitions against the law were against the constitution.
PBC Executive Member Ramzan Chaudhry said that the PBC would request the SC to send back the law to parliament for reconsidering the clauses, which were in violation of the constitution.
He said that the PBC had reservations on certain clauses, but it did not want confrontation among institutions, adding that they would request the SC to refer the new law to parliament.
“Whenever a new law is framed it has some shortcomings, which can be corrected without confrontation,” he added.
Ramzan said that lawyers believed that there were several good clauses in the new law, including giving right of appeal to the accused, which was the need of the hour. He said that the PBC supported the clause about the permission of positive criticism on the court’s judgements. He said that the PBC had serious reservations on the immunity clause, which was contrary to the constitution.
Legal experts believed that it could be a setback for the government as the PBC, for the first time, had approached the court against the government in the last four years.
Earlier, the PBC did not move any petition in the 18th Amendment and NRO cases.
Pakistan People’s Party senators Aitzaz Ahsan, Raza Rabbani and Babar Awan had also expressed reservations over few clauses of the law.
On July 14, hearing the contempt law the court had issued notices to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, Law Minister Farooq Naek, the Senate chairman, the National Assembly speaker and others.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk