The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave one week time to Deputy Attorney General for fixation of responsibility after scanning the record (press clippings etc) of Information Minister's statement pertaining to the media report of Chief Justice Chaudhry's meeting with Punjab Chief Minister.
A three-member bench of the apex court comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmed and Justice Ghulam Rabbani handed over the record to Deputy Attorney General (DAG), Shah Khawar, and directed him to assist the court in the matter.
Appearing before the bench, Shah Khawar contended that Attorney General was not available, as he was to appear in some cases before Sindh High Court (SHC). "For us you are equally good and competent to do the job," the Chief Justice observed. At that the DAG requested the court to give him one week time for completion of the task, which the court accepted and adjourned the case for one week.
On January 18, taking notice of Information Minster's statement telecast on January 12 on a TV channel, the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had fixed the matter for hearing and had issued notice to the AG. Earlier, on January 10, a media report was published in a local daily under the caption 'tip-toe meeting', wherein a meeting between the Chief Justice and Chief Minister Punjab was mentioned. However, the next day, it was retracted. The paper also expressed regrets for carrying an unverified news item.
However, two days later, Information Minister Qamar-uz-Zaman Kaira while addressing the media at parliament House had said that the meeting (between the chief justice and the chief minister) was very meaningful in the present situation, especially when a detailed judgement of the Supreme Court on the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) was yet to come.
Later in the day, the Court issued a statement denying that any such meeting. It asked the claimants to produce evidence or contradict within three days. However, till date the court was neither provided with any evidence nor contradiction of the statement.