While hearing a petition pertaining to the media’s reporting following the Abbottabad raid, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said on Tuesday that the Supreme Court had the final authority on all constitutional matters.
With the long-awaited and potentially explosive Abbottabad Commission report purportedly complete and submitted, the Supreme Court was moved regarding the media’s criticism of the armed forces in the aftermath of the Osama bin Laden debacle last year.
The petitioner’s counsel, Raja Irshad, maintained that the media was regularly defaming the armed forces. He made it a point to mention Monday’s events, claiming the media wrongly interpreted the chief justice’s statements, giving the impression that he was ‘fighting’ with the army chief.
“Pakistan armed forces are being maligned in a planned manner internally as well as externally, but the fact is that they have always respected the apex court,” Irshad said.
Chief Justice Chaudhry responded by saying, “Yes, we have witnessed it yesterday (Monday).”
He further denied there was any conflict between institutions, adding that the points brought to notice (statements made yesterday) would be taken seriously.
The chief justice also advised Irshad to refrain from speaking on the subject, saying that there should be no doubt about the strength of national institutions, and reiterated that the Supreme Court had the final authority to make decisions under the Constitution of Pakistan.
During Tuesday’s hearing, the court summoned all records of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) press releases as well as statements by the armed forces’ issued after the raid in May 2011, in which US SEALs captured and killed Bin Laden in his compound in Abbottabad.
The bench also called for a copy of President Asif Ali Zardari’s statement published in a US publication to figure if it has any defamatory content as claimed by the petitioner’s counsel.
The court also issued directives to the concerned authority to submit Terms of Reference (ToR) used by the the commission on the incident; the video of two impugned programs of Geo TV, hosted by Najam Sethi and all statements of former Pakistani ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani to ascertain whether any derogatory material violated the Article 19 of the Constitution of Pakistan.
Furthermore, the court announced it would decide the maintainability of the case after receiving all the requested record.
The hearing was then adjourned till November 22.
(Read: Distant thunder)
Published in The Express Tribune, November 7th, 2012.
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