SC resumes Gilani contempt hearing
The SC today could see four major issues in the prime minister’s contempt case before or after the arguments of the ‘prosecutor’, the Attorney General Irfan Qadir.
These issues include the statements and some arguments of prime minister’s counsel Aitzaz Ahsan including: If Supreme Court wants to remove President Zardari it should impeach him constitutionally; the parliament could overturn the judgment of the Supreme Court; prime minister could not be removed from his office even if Supreme Court convicted him in this case; and whether or not prime minister is taking all steps against judiciary contumaciously.
During his arguments on Friday before the seven-member bench Aitzaz hinted towards removal of President Zardari through constitutional impeachment but once out of the court and before the media Aitzaz properly leveled the allegation as if the apex court wanted to remove President Zardari from his office.
Aitzaz did this despite the fact that different members of the bench had clearly told Aitzaz more than once that president and the prime minister were also their president and the prime minister and that they only wanted implementation of law and Constitution and to establish the rule of law in the country.
Aitzaz told the media on Friday that if the president is to be removed, they should impeach him, thus giving an impression as if the Supreme Court was proceeding on NRO and prime minister contempt case with the sole objective to remove the president from his office and that too unconstitutionally.
Last week, during the media briefing outside the Supreme Court, Aitzaz also declared: “Parliament has powers to reverse any judgment of any court.” Aitzaz then suggested to the Supreme Court to refer the case to the parliament. At the end Aitzaz also mentioned that in one of the options in its January 10, 2012 judgment, the apex court had itself hinted towards such a possibility.
It is important to mention here that seven-member bench had repeatedly told Aitzaz that the said option was misinterpreted by him and apex court had mentioned it in a specific context which could be understood by carefully reading that option.
The most important thing that Supreme Court would have to consider is that in its January 10, 2012 judgment, it was clearly declared that if convicted, Prime Minister Gilani would not only be disqualified from holding any office for next five years but could also possibly face imprisonment.
However, Aitzaz Ahsan has repeatedly stated with full authority of ignorance that even if the Supreme Court convicts the prime minister, the later will continue to hold his office as ‘contempt of court’ is a small crime like that of traffic violation and thus doesn’t entail any disqualification.
Option-2 in this judgment reads: Proceedings may be initiated against the chief executive of the federation, i.e. the prime minister, the federal minister for law, justice and human rights division and the federal secretary law, justice and human rights division for committing contempt of this Court by persistently, obstinately and contumaciously resisting, failing or refusing to implement or execute in full the directions issued by this Court in its judgment delivered in the case of Dr Mobashir Hassan (supra). It may not be lost sight of that, apart from the other consequences, by virtue of the provisions of clauses (g) and (h) of Article 63(1) read with Article 113 of the Constitution a possible conviction on such a charge may entail a disqualification from being elected or chosen as, and from being, a member of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) or a provincial assembly for at least a period of five years.”
The provisions mentioned in this option say that two years imprisonment could also be given. However, Aitzaz said that this issue of disqualification has to be decided by the speaker of the National Assembly that whether a minor crime like ‘contempt of court’ could disqualify a member of the parliament. Aitzaz further says that the speaker will communicate his/her decision to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and he will have the right to appeal before the high court and then before the Supreme Court and all this process could take months.
Aitzaz has been trying to establish by all these interpretations that the Supreme Court would be unable to get any of its order implemented and even its judgment on the prime minister contempt case will be dealt with the ‘iron hand’ of the executive, in the same manner as in all previous judgments. The last and important issue is that of contumaciously defying apex court orders by the chief executive, Prime Minister Gilani as Aitzaz argued before the bench that his client has not contumaciously defied the apex court orders.
It is important to mention that keeping aside what PM Gilani has done regarding implementation of NRO judgment, it is a matter of record that PM Gilani has virtually blasted the apex court and its judges in his addresses in different public meetings after the initiation of the contempt case against him.
Gilani in fact crossed all limits in ridiculing and insulting the Supreme Court and tried to infuriate the court in a way as if he were anxious to get a judgment against him. All this happened when Aitzaz continued to argue inside the court that the PM had no knowledge about the contempt case in SC.
Next budget likely to be of Rs4400b
KARACHI: The total outlay of the next financial year is expected to center around Rs4400 billion including the allocations for provinces of over Rs1600 billion, according to the budget proposals under consideration, Geo News reported.According to the budget proposals, the total volume of the economy in next budget could expand up to $23900 billion. Rs933 billion would go away on account of the payment of loans and interests. Besides, Rs115 billion of the federation will be lost for meeting the financial deficit, however the provinces would give Rs110 billion surplus budget for trimming down the total financial deficit. Allocation for the defence is expected at Rs545 billion.
Federal Board of Revenue tax income has been estimated at Rs2400 billion, while federation’s non-tax income at Rs552 billion.
The provinces under National Financial Award (NFC) would be getting Rs1503 billion.
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