Supreme Court of Pakistan has rejected the reply of prime minister on controversial
press conference of Pakistan Peoples Party leader Senator Babar Awan
and summoned the fresh reply from Prime Minister, court has stated that
on what capacity Babar Awan used the public office for announcement of
peoples Party stance.
Court also has summoned the federation stance over replies of army
Chief and Director General ISI; meanwhile apex court has again issued
notices to President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza
Gilani and others on application of Canadian citizen Shafqat Ullah.
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has said
no takeover is possible in the country in his presence, stressing that
Pakistan will now have supremacy of the Constitution.
Heading a nine-member bench of the Supreme Court (SC) hearing the
infamous memorandum scandal case on Friday, the Chief Justice said that
past are the days when the courts used to endorse unconstitutional
measures; instead, we are sitting here to safeguard the Constitution.’
The armed forces are protecting the country with the blood and Chief
of the Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, in his affidavit,
termed the memo a threat to the national security.
Justice Jawad S. Khawja said the newspaper reports are giving
impressions that there is a war underway between the military and the
Parliament; but, he is unable to spot any such thing on ground.
Salahuddin Mengel, the counsel of Abdul Qadir Baloch said former
Pakistani ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani is a US citizen. To this,
Haqqani’s counsel Asma Jahangir retorted, ‘This is unfounded claim.’
Chief Justice asked him not to utter any unsubstantiated fact, saying Haqqani is a Pakistani citizen.
Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani remarked the law permits dual citizenship.
A petitioner and Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) leader Isehaq Dar
argued that the memorandum posed serious threats to national solidarity
and security and the Chief Justice had said the nothing matters more
than national sovereignty.
He stressed presence of the memo is not a controversy any more; everyone accedes that it was written.
The CJ Chaudhry said the investigations into this issue are yet to ascertain the fact.
Isehaq Dar said the Parliamentary Committee could not receive any
report sought of the government over the memo, adding the Committee was
not formed under the Constitution; instead, it was instituted with a
resolution of the Parliament.
Hence, it cannot conduct inquiry into the memo scandal, he added.
Justice Saqib Nisar queried if an effective committee could be formed
with a new resolution, adding the reason for inefficacy of a certain
forum could be made justification for taking the matter to the court.
No such law exists that prescribes punishment for the one who defies the Committee, he added.
On this, the Chief Justice Chaudhry said, ‘Let come fore the
viewpoints of those who are against the maintainability of the
petitions.’
Also, the court, disallowing the PML-N leader Khwaja Asif from
reading excerpts of Bill Clinton’s book, said it does not pertains to
the question at hand.
Justice Jawwad S. Khawja said they (judges) do not deliver verdict on media report or at the behest of anyone.
Chief Justice said they are sitting here with an open mind to protect the constitution and rule of law. SANA
