News
Thursday, November 15, 2012
SC drops contempt notice against Raja in NRO case* Naek presents copy of authorisation, approval of summary, receipt of dispatch, acceptance of letter by Geneva AG’s office
By Hasnaat Malik
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday withdrew contempt of court notice against Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf after the government complied with its order given in para 178 of the NRO judgment and wrote a letter to the Swiss authorities.
A five-member bench of the apex court, comprising Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, withdrew the notice during a hearing of the NRO implementation case. Minister for Law and Justice Farooq H Naek told the bench that the incumbent government has fully complied with the court’s direction.
He placed before the bench copy of authorisation, approval of summary, receipt of dispatch of letter and the acceptance of letter by the attorney general of Geneva’s office. The law minister also cited two documents containing English and French versions of the letter. To a court query, Naek also produced receipt of the letter by the attorney general of Geneva’s office on November 13.
The law minister requested for discharge of the contempt notice against the prime minister and closure of proceedings in the case against the government of Pakistan. The court discharged the show-cause notice against Raja Pervez Ashraf and also withdrew the proceedings against the federal government in the NRO case.
Legal experts have given credit to Justice Asif Khosa and Farooq H Naek for resolving the Swiss letter issue because when Justice Khosa was heading the bench he had recommended the government find out the solution for resolving this matter. On the other hand, despite serious resistance within the Pakistan People’s Party, incumbent law minister convinced his party leadership to write the letter.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk