SC to hear govt’s appeal against July 12 order in NRO case
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday began hearing the government’s review petition challenging its July 12 order asking the prime minister to write to Swiss authorities for reopening graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.A five-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, was hearing the petition against its earlier order in the NRO implementation case.
The bench also includes Justice Sarmad Jalal Usmani, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, and Justice Ather Saeed.
During the hearing, Attorney General Irfan Qadir requested the formation of a larger bench to hear the appeal.
He moreover said that the bench that issues the order should be the one reviewing it, adding that, the court should wait until all five judges become available.
Qadir moreover requested the court to adjourn the hearing until after Eidul Fitr.
The appeal against the apex court’s order was filed by the attorney general on behalf of the government last week.
The appeal, filed on Wednesday Aug 8, requested the court to review its order in which Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf had been directed to submit an implementation report with respect to writing the contentious letter to Swiss authorities.
It was filed in the backdrop of the issuing of a show-cause notice for contempt of court to Prime Minister Ashraf over his failure to implement the court’s directive of writing the letter.
‘Party will keep electing new PMs until elections’
Senior PPP leader Senator Aitzaz Ahsan said here on Tuesday that the government would bring another prime minister if the judiciary sent Raja Pervez Ashraf packing for not implementing the judgment in the NRO implementation case.
Talking to reporters, he said: “The judiciary is crossing the limits (set for it under the) Constitution.” Parliament, he said, would keep electing prime ministers if the judiciary continued to disqualify one after another.
Mr Ahsan, who was the counsel for disqualified prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, said the president had complete immunity under the Constitution and the judiciary could not change it.
He accused some political elements of using the judiciary to achieve their nefarious objectives and regretted that when Nawaz Sharif had gone to the court a commission was set up with a notice and a prime minister was sent home in two weeks when Imran Khan filed a petition.
Barrister Ahsan was of the opinion that the judiciary should take up other cases instead of focusing on such petitions. “Neither the judiciary can dissolve parliament nor can the army intervene. The parliament will complete its term,” he said.
He said: “I was earlier with the judiciary because it was on the right and today I am with the one that is on the right.”
Online adds: Answering a question, Barrister Ahsan said: “There is no middle way in the contempt proceedings against Prime Minister Ashraf as the Supreme Court is bound to remove prime ministers in contempt cases like it did in the case of Yousuf Raza Gilani.”
But he said the government would never indulge in any tactics to degrade the judiciary. He said the judiciary was on the wrong track in the NRO implementation case.
Mr Ahsan said Article 248 of the Constitution clearly restricted the prime minister from proceeding against the president, but the judiciary was on a mission to send elected prime ministers home instead of honouring the Constitution.
World Muslim body to suspend Syria
MAKKAH: An emergency summit of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) began late Tuesday with a proposal to suspend conflict-wracked Syria, a move strongly opposed by Iran.A draft final statement obtained by AFP said the summit “approves the suspension of Syria’s membership,” a measure recommended by a preparatory ministerial meeting held Monday in the western Saudi city of Jeddah.
The move would further isolate President Bashar al-Assad’s embattled regime, after Syria was suspended from the Arab League last year over its brutal crackdown on an Arab Spring-inspired revolt launched in March 2011.
The OIC represents 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide, and its suspension of Syria would heap pressure on Assad, who has characterized the uprising as a plot by Western and rival powers to overthrow his Iran-allied regime.
Saudi King Abdullah — who initially proposed the suspension of Syria — is presiding over the meeting held in Makkah, the holiest Islamic city.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose country has openly criticised the push to suspend Syria, is attending the extraordinary meeting and was expected to strongly oppose the move to suspend Damascus.
The draft statement says Syria should be suspended over “the obstinacy of the Syrian authorities in following the military option” to solve the crisis and the failure of a UN-Arab League peace plan brokered by Kofi Annan.
It demands that Assad’s regime “immediately end all acts of violence” while defending Syria’s “unity, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.”
Tensions have been simmering for months between Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia and Shiite-dominated Iran as Syria has emerged as another arena for the longtime rivalry between the two regional heavyweights.
Saudi Arabia, which hosts the OIC’s headquarters in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, has openly called for arming Syrian rebels.
Tehran meanwhile accuses Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey of arming and financing the mainly Sunni rebels against Assad, who leads a regime dominated by members of his Alawite sect, an off-shoot of Shia Islam.
Iran is the Syrian regime’s biggest regional ally and has pledged its full support for Assad, though it denies US and rebel accusations that it is providing his regime with arms and fighters.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Monday criticised the move to suspend Syria’s membership of the OIC, saying it would not resolve the conflict and was not in line with the group’s charter.
“We have to look for other ways, means and mechanisms for resolving conflicts and crises,” he said, calling for a “Syrian-Syrian solution” reached through negotiations between the government and the rebels.
But foreign ministers meeting ahead of the summit agreed to suspend Syria “based on consensus with an absolute majority” and forwarded the decision to heads of state for final approval, OIC chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said.
Sources close to the meeting said that only Iran and Algeria were against the recommendation. Syria had no representative at the meeting.
Mohammed Ahmed Taieb, a top Saudi foreign ministry official, told AFP that some delegates believed the body should go further by demanding that Assad step down and “preparing for a post-Assad transition period.”Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik
Abdessalem hailed the move to suspend as “a strong message to the Syrian regime on the importance of listening to the will of the people and their demands for freedom, justice and dignity.”
The United States said that special envoy to the OIC Rashad Hussain would take part in the summit as an observer and meet with delegates on the sidelines.
The State Department said his attendance demonstrates Washington’s commitment to “bring additional pressure to bear on the Assad regime.”
The 17-month conflict in Syria has killed more than 21,000 people, according to rights groups.
In addition to the Syrian crisis, the OIC was also to discuss the Arab-Israeli conflict, the violence against the Muslim Rohingya minority in Myanmar and the unrest in Mali.
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