Contempt of Court law: SC orders federation to submit record of argument
A five-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and comprising Justices Shakirullah Jan, Tasadduq Jilani, Jawwad S Khawaja and Khilji Arif was conducting the third hearing of the case based on petitions against the law.
Earlier, the federation's counsel had sought time from the Supreme Court of Pakistan as it began hearing 27 petitions challenging the Contempt of Court Act, saying that the case was of high importance.
The controversial legislation – which has been termed a ‘black law’ by the opposition – is aimed at shielding the new premier from contempt proceedings similar to those that led to Yousaf Raza Gilani’s ouster from the country’s top office.
The federal cabinet approved the bill on July 4 after which President Asif Ali Zardari, who has 30 days to sign any bill after approval by both houses of parliament, did not waste much time and put his signature on the draft after overnight passage by the Senate on July 12.
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It is a duty of the Parliament to make laws this is why they are called legislators or law makers too and they must have sent the Supreme Court the amendments to be enforced while making it a part of constitution. It clearly shows that SC wants to clip the duties of legislators and assume those duties by themselves and interpret their selves like dictators did in the past. If our Supreme Court can't interpret effectively and poke into the matters of the Parliament grudgingly, then this is time to introduce and pass certain clear cut amendments for the judge's competence to understand constitution. This Supreme Court has proven that they are really supreme and can assume the duties of a parliament, establishment and the executive. That is very dangerous for the existence of any country let alone be the case of Pakistan where so much conspiracies are hatching. There is no turn back if an innocent person is hanged by our judge's wrong decision as the innocently hanged person can't be brought back alive by these judges and a broken country can't be re-establish the same way.
its just a wastage of time s.c should declared it null n void
@Anonymous:
please quote some good example, not this stupid stuff Regards @Anonymous!!!
I am amazed at how so many commenters are harping on the string that court is on the wrong end and the courts job is to provide justice to the people. My question to all those is that if your "beloved PM/parliament" passes a law directing the forces that they must kill (which they are financially) all the people of pakistan then should the court just sit and smile while having the power to stop the govt from doing so and just wait for five years to see if those who somehow escaped the killing re-elect the govt? I don't know if it is the ET which is censoring the pro-judiciary comments or something else.
is there a law that requires debate and a time frame for a bill to be passed by both houses and approved by the president?
What sort of record of the arguments. The Government never held any debate in the Parliament. This shameful law was passed in a hush hush manner.
I am interested to know how much public money has been spent on these senseless cases. The courts' job is to provide justice to the public and not to audit government's decisions. This is the job of the public and they will express their will in incoming election.
The weak and helpless PPP government previously took weak stand before SC in almost all cases. On the advice of SC, they sacked more than 100 judges (so called PCO Judges), 2 Chairmen NAB, PG NAB, Attorney Generals, Secretary Law, DGs FIA and may top ranking officers and accepted the disqualification of Prime Minster. Now the government has taken strong stand and conveyed that SC cannot summon Prime Minister and sack him. This strong stand wlll give a loud message to the judiciary and they will think many times to strike the new contempt law or proceeding against second Prime Minster.