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Article 204 does not grant immunity from contempt of court: SC
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) resumed hearing of various identical petitions challenging the Contempt of Court Act 2012 Friday, Geo News reported.A five-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and including Justice Shakirullah Jan, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, resumed hearing 27 identical petitions challenging the Contempt of Court Act, 2012.
During today’s proceedings, the lawyers representing the petitioners in the case continued their arguments against the law.
Raja Afrasiab argued before the court that the Parliament cannot alter the constitutional definition of contempt of court on the basis of mere majority. The Constitution has already described the subject matter very clearly.
At one point, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja remarked that those who formulated the Constitution are respectable personalities and praised Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He further said that the people who produced the unanimous Constitution were the people with a vision but the dictators distorted it, however, the Constitution is still of primary importance.
Justice Jawwad continued saying that parliamentarians are also public servants as they are paid by the masses and they should not consider them as masters.
He said that Article 204 of the Constitution does not give immunity to any one from contempt of court. The provision of the Constitution cannot be amended under any subordinate law.
When one of the petitioners’ lawyer tried to present the fundamental clauses of the Constitution, the Chief Justice interrupted him and remarked that it is not the time to tell stories and discuss the Constitution in detail. He said that the judiciary is trying to bring democracy back on track. He further said that it is not the time to take up theories.
On Thursday, the court had directed the lawyers of petitioners to complete their arguments today, as the arguments of Attorney General Irfan Qadir would be heard from Monday.
During proceedings, the SC observed that it was the job of judges to give a verdict, adding that the whole system would not be threatened if one law was struck down. The chief justice also added that it was not the court’s concern who was not letting parliament function and that the legislature and judiciary were doing their own respective jobs.
In his arguments, Ahsanuddin Sheikh, president of the Lahore High Court Bar Association, Rawalpindi Bench, said parliament had passed the new contempt of court law in a rush and did not have the authority to curtail the judiciary’s freedom. On the court’s direction, he also read out before the bench the record of the parliamentary debate on the law.
In his remarks, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja said the parliamentary proceedings could not be challenged in any court of law as they enjoyed protection under Article 69 of the Constitution. However, the bench could review the debate held in parliament.
Justice Jawwad inquired about the rationale behind the drafting of the law and observed that the parliamentary debate was revealing with respect to the legislation. In the parliamentary debate,Captain (retd) Safdar of the PML-N had spoken about asking the judiciary on the draft of the law.
The chief justice observed that it would become clear from the article-wise approval of the law by the National Assembly whether or not Article 248-1 had been removed because the removal of this article was being mentioned in the National Assembly.
Courtesy www.geo.tv