IHC warns PM may be summoned ‘for flouting court order’

Justice Siddiqui says he ‘sincerely’ feels there is a purposeful effort to defy his order

ISLAMABAD: Irked by the ‘non-serious attitude’ of the executive, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has warned that it would summon Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and other key government functionaries for “flouting a judgment pertaining to removal of blasphemous content on social media”.

IHC judge Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui on Friday noted that he ‘sincerely’ felt that there was a purposeful effort to defy his March 31, 2017 judgment, which “obviously is a contemptuous act”.

“If same attitude continues and exhibited by the executive, this court would be constrained to issue direction for personal appearance of the worthy prime minister of Pakistan, ministers for law, religious affairs and information technology, to face the contempt of court proceedings,” Justice Siddiqui said.

He added that the respondents might realise this aspect that in contempt matters, no protection was available under Article 248 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan.



Under Article 248, the president, a governor, the prime minister, a federal minister, a minister of state, the chief minister and a provincial minister are not be answerable to any court for the exercise of powers and performance of functions of their respective offices or for any act done or purported to be done in the exercise of those powers and performance of those functions.

Justice Siddiqui’s observations came over non-submission of a compliance report and non-implementation of his March 31 judgment, which carried several directions for the government to deal with blasphemous content on social media.

On Friday, the court was irked when Ministry of Interior’s Special Secretary Furqan Buhadur tried to explain certain steps taken by the executive in pursuance of the order.

“In my estimation essence of all these statements is nothing,” Justice Siddiqui stated.



He said the non-serious attitude on the part of the executive was evident from the fact that a period of eight and a half months had elapsed, but no material step was taken to implement the judgment.

“I failed to understand why the executive is dealing with this sensitive issue in [a] routine [manner] through bureaucratic and political approach,” he said, “The issues decided through the judgment have a direct bearing on the law and order situation in the country which may put the country in very serious crisis.”

In its March 31 order, the court had ordered the interior ministry “to identify NGOs operating in Pakistan with an agenda to spread blasphemy and pornography, obviously with the financial assistance of different groups within or outside Pakistan”.

The court had directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to evolve some comprehensive and delicate mechanism to identify the pages and websites containing blasphemous contents in order to take some remedial steps with promptitude.



Earlier, Justice Siddiqui had observed that availability of blasphemous material on social media had a direct bearing on the integrity, security and defence of Pakistan. All the institutions needed to rise to the occasion in order to protect ideological and geographical boundaries of the country, he had noted.

The IHC had also ordered the authorities concerned to include sections related to blasphemy and pornography in the Cyber Crimes Act and to inquire about the NGOs operating in Pakistan with an agenda to spread blasphemous contents and promote pornography.

The IHC judge had also ordered that the top leadership of the country needed to become pro-active on the issue for raising national ‘firewall’ enabling Pakistan to monitor Pakistan’s internet traffic and all the users. The court will resume hearing of the case on December 22.