Parliamentary privilege: Court asks why should petition against Khawja Asif stand

Shireen Mazari’s lawyer argues that personal attacks constitute an offence

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday told a counsel for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf MNA, Dr Shireen Mazari,  to explain why a petition filed against Defence Minister Khawaja Asif should not be dismissed.

Dr Mazari had sought IHC’s intervention in disqualifying Asif for issuing derogatory remarks against her during a session of the National Assembly in June.

The defence minister, while pointing towards Mazari in the National Assembly, had said “order this tractor trolley to shut her mouth”. He had made the remark after she and some other lawmakers protested against his speech on load-shedding during Ramazan in June.

Justice Athar Minallah, on Thursday told Dr Mazari’s counsel, Barrister Shoaib Razzaq, to argue the maintainability of the petition in light of the privilege Asif enjoys under Article 69 of the Constitution. The article says courts can  not  inquire into the proceedings of the Parliament.

In his arguments, Razzaq said that the petitioner had exhausted all available alternatives and had come to the court as a last resort.

The counsel argued that the remark was not just an internal affair of the parliament, pointing out that there were several judgments of the higher judiciary in which a court could take up the matter if fundamental rights of a citizen are breached. This is in line with the Article 8 (laws inconsistent with or in derogation of fundamental rights to be void) of the Constitution.

The court, however, directed Razzaq to argue over how parliament’s proceedings could be challenged in the court.

Razzaq said that the matter involved a personal attack by Asif against a woman lawmaker which constitutes an offence. The judge then adjourned the hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2016.