The Supreme Court on Wednesday accepted documentary record presented by cabinet secretary Nargis Sethi as evidence to defend Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani in a contempt of court case. 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, also directed Sethi to appear before the bench on Thursday (today) for cross-examination.
At the outset of hearing, the bench expressed dismay over the Prime Minister's defence's failure to appropriately submit record of summaries sent to the premier, advising him not to write a letter to the Swiss authorities to reopen corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari in pursuance of court orders in the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) verdict.
The bench suspended the proceedings for half-an-hour, directing the defence to submit and produce summaries' record properly. Later, Prime Minister's counsel Aitzaz Ahsan apprised the bench that Nargis Sethi, being a defence witness, had submitted the record and wanted to produce the summaries and other relevant record.
Following bench's permission, Nargis presented the record. It was examined by the court and verified by Sethi. The bench also accepted the record as evidence which contained May 21 and September 21, 2010 summaries, signed by the then Law Secretary, Aqil Mirza, and the then Law Minister, Babar Awan, respectively, as well as opinion of the then Attorney General, Anwar Mansoor Khan, sent to the premier by the law ministry.
Aitzaz urged the court, to treat the May 21, 2010 summary as defence's 'evidence number one' and the correspondence of Saifur Rehman-led Ehtesab Bureau with the Swiss authorities as 'evidence number 2.' Aitzaz also presented as evidence the letter of the then Attorney General, Chaudhry Farooq, that the latter wrote to Swiss authorities in 1999. He presented as defence evidence the record pertaining to correspondence of the then chairman of Ehtesab Bureau, Saifur Rahman and AGP Chaudhry Farooq with the Swiss authorities from 1997 to 1999.
After Sethi told the court on oath that she would speak truth, Aitzaz asked some questions from her. In her replies, she said she joined the civil service on April 5, 1980 and that she also served as principal secretary to the prime minister as well as federal secretary health. In response to Aitzaz's query, she said that she had served as principal secretary to the prime minister from December 15, 2009 to January 17, 2011.
"Did you record the PM's directions correctly or not?" Here, the court raised an objection, telling Aitzaz that the question raised by him was tantamount to a cross-examination. "Let me ask the questions, as the court is performing the function of prosecution," Aitzaz pleaded. Sethi stated that paragraphs 20 and 21 of the summaries were the PM's directives.
To a query from Aitzaz, Sethi said that in the government affairs, if secretary law did not act upon PM's directives, the summary was again forwarded to the premier. According to her, apart from administrative matters, the PM does a variety of jobs under the rules of business. She added that the premier had a lot of responsibilities, which could not be explained in words.
According to her, usually the PM remains in touch with the parliament and participates in majority of sittings of parliament. She added that the Prime Minister had a heavy schedule to meet parliamentarians, allied parties, diplomats and visiting dignitaries. Besides, he also have interaction with media. She apprised the bench that she had never found the premier in an angry mood or in altercation with anyone. According to her, the premier has never uttered a single word against the judiciary.
While addressing Sethi, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa observed that all these things were routine matters and everyone knew about them. Aitzaz contended that any matter about the Prime Minister or ministers' character could be known by their near-ones.
He said since Sethi had been working with him, she had better information about him. Against any accused, according to Aitzaz, the best witness is one who actually works with him. Ahsan argued that a cross-examination contained only a 'yes' or 'no' response.
After hearing various questions on different aspects of premier's political and parliamentary role, the bench asked Ahsan whether he wanted to give Prime Minister Gilani a 'character certificate'. During the hearing, Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq raised some objections to the defence. The court told him that his objections would be examined later.
Talking to media, Ahsan said he wanted to prove that his client had not committed any contempt of court in any manner. He said the statement of Sethi recorded on Wednesday would be reviewed Thursday (today). The court adjourned further proceedings for Thursday (today). He said Sethi had proved that the prime minister had joined the dinner hosted in the honour of outgoing Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday without any invitation with a view to improving government-judiciary relations.