Supreme Court verdict tomorrow: Prime Minister asked to make personal appearance

Reserving its judgement in a contempt of court case against Premier Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, the Supreme Court summoned him to appear before the bench on April 26 - the day it has chosen to announce its verdict. After hearing prosecutor (Attorney General for Pakistan) Irfan Qadir and premier's counsel Aitzaz Ahsan.
A seven-member special bench comprising Justice Nasirul Mulk, Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Muhammad Ather Saeed, reserved its verdict. The bench fixed April 26 to announce its verdict in the presence of Prime Minister Gilani.
Advancing his arguments as a prosecutor in the case, AGP Irfan Qadir contended that no law that addressed the contempt of court existed in the country. "No sentence can be announced under the existing contempt ordinance, 2003 as it was not adopted by the parliament," Qadir argued. He said Contempt of Court Ordinance was promulgated in July 2003, which expired in December 2003.
Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, however, reminded him that under the same ordinance, the court had given several judgements. Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmani asked the prosecutor as to whether those judgements, given under the contempt ordinance, were wrong. Irfan Qadir, said that the court was assisted wrongly in those judgements.
Justice Khosa also observed that even if there was no law available, Article 204 was there, adding that the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003 had been given protection under Article 270. Qadir urged the court to show restraint and save the institutions from collision. About the court's 2010 verdict in the NRO implementation case, he said the court announced its 300-page ruling against 8000 people without hearing them, whereas it put forward only few paras for implementation.
Justice Nasirul Mulk questioned how the government claimed to have implemented most of the verdict that if there were just a few paras. The prosecutor then said the court was misguided, adding that the government made false claims to this effect.
Qadir said the court's verdict was not implemented. "I will point out the sectors where the verdict was not implemented," he stated. He suggested the court to avoid hearing political cases, adding that such matters should be taken in their actual context and not in an emotional manner. He said it was the prosecution's duty to ensure that no innocent was penalised.
During the hearing, he contended that a section of media was misreporting details of the case and was creating misunderstandings between the government and the judiciary. Referring to Section 8 (2), Qadir said the court could release orders to stop such reporting. He further submitted that some reports had quoted chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry as saying that "robbers have been made ministers".
The prosecutor added that such a statement could not be attributed to the Chief Justice. According to him, such media reports are trying to influence court's proceedings. Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany asked Qadir whether he thought the court was being influenced. Even if the court is not being influenced, the statements are quite offensive, he replied.
He said there was no evidence which could prove that the premier committed contempt of court and termed a charge-sheet against the premier baseless. Qadir maintained that the premier would not write a letter to the Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari. According to him in case a letter is written; the closed cases will not be reopened there.
He said the Supreme Court had not directly ordered the Prime Minister Gilani to write a letter to the Swiss authorities. According to him, pleaded the court had taken in its hands all affairs of the NAB. He said the court should not ignore the fact that the NAB had the authority to file an appeal against the NRO case. Justice Nasirul Mulk then noted that the review plea against the NRO verdict had already been decided, thus no further appeal could be filed. When former Attorney General Malik Muhammad Qayyum wrote a letter to close down Swiss cases, the NRO was in force at that time, Qadir said.
Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa noted that Malik Qayyum's letter had led to the closure of Swiss cases. The prosecutor stated that there was no justification of NAB chairman's letter without law secretary's prior permission. Concluding his arguments, Qadir said under Article 248 of the Constitution, the prime minister also enjoyed immunity from courts' proceedings and requested the bench to show judicial restraint and withdraw the case against the premier.
In his rebutting arguments, premier's counsel Aitzaz Ahsen stated the hearing of contempt case (criminal case) and NRO implementation case by the same bench created confusion. He said the court should not insist on writing a letter to Swiss authorities until Asif Ali Zardari held the office of the President. He said writing of letter would lead to irreparable loss to the federation, as the President was also a supreme commander of the armed forces. Aitzaz maintained that the court should discharge the premier from the contempt case. The court reserved its verdict to be announced on April 26 in the presence of the prime minister.