LAHORE:
The Lahore High Court on Wednesday heard harsh remarks by the Attorney General of Pakistan, Irfan Qadir, on judgments passed by the Supreme Court, even as a full bench of judges exercised judicious restraint hearing a contempt petition against President Asif Ali Zardari regarding the dual offices case.
A five-member bench, headed by LHC Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial was hearing the case. Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh, Justice Sheikh Najamul Hassan, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah are the other judges on the bench.
AG Qadir insisted to argue on the issue of the petition’s maintainability, when CJ Bandial asked him to inform the bench whether contempt of court proceedings could be initiated against President Zardari in the presence of Article 248 (2) of the Constitution.
However, AG Qadir said that he could not discuss the constitutional immunity unless the maintainability of the petition was decided by the bench first.
Justice Shah remarked that the interpretation of Article 248 (2) was necessary to decide the maintainability of the petition.
Continuing his arguments against the maintainability of the petition, the attorney general said President Zardari took oath of his office under the Constitution and not under any judgment passed by the court. He said the president could not be forced to do something for which he was not obligated to do under the Constitution.
He pointed out that review petitions were filed against most of the judgments cited by the petitioner. However, the bench observed that no interim relief was granted by the Supreme Court in review petitions so far and the original judgments were still intact.
The attorney general also asked the bench to highlight any provision in the Constitution binding the president to act under the court’s direction.
Justice Sheikh replied by asking AG Qadir to show a single constitutional provision allowing the president to reject judgments of the courts.
AG Qadir said that the dual offices issue was a political matter and the court should not pass judgments on such issues. Doubting the credentials of the advocates of the petitioner, AG Qadir urged the judges to unearth the hidden hands behind the petition first, before proceeding with the case.
The chief justice then asked AG Qadir to appear before the bench on Thursday (today) to provide arguments on the issue of the president’s immunity.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 20th, 2012.
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Irfan Qadir has a personal vendetta against the independent judiciary. He was AG under dictator Musharraf and inherited by Zardari similar to NRO.