Supreme Court to continue hearing of contempt case against Gilani today

The Supreme Court (SC) has adjourned the contempt of court case against Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani till today (Thursday), the Attorney General Maulvi Anwar-ul-Haq would plead the case as prosecutor, while Secretary Cabinet/Defence Nargis Sethi has been ordered to appear again.

A seven-member bench headed by Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk, comprising Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Muhammad Ather Saeed, heard the case on Thursday.

Aitezaz Ahsan, who is pleading the PM Gilani’s case before the bench said Defence Secretary Nargis Sethi brought the two summaries along with her.

Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk remarked these are the same two summaries which you (Ahsan) had already submitted.

Replying to this, Aitezaz said the documents had not been submitted as evidences. Justice Mulk said, ‘You should have submitted them (documents) beforehand.’

Court then took an interval of half an hour for the party to file documents.

Justice Asif Saeed Khosa remarked the judges will take stock of the documents if they can take them as evidences or not.

With Nargis Sethi giving evidence, Aitezaz begins to cross-questions, ‘A summary is dated May 25, 2009 and the other is September 20. I have already submitted the second summary containing the draft of the first one.’

Nargis submited before the bench that she joined civil service in 1980 and ever since, worked in senior positions in various ministries. Also, I functioned as Principal Secretary of the Prime Minister from December 15 2008 to January 17 2011.

The court noted that most of the time during the proceeding was wasted with irrelevant questions by PM’s counsel Aitzaz Ahsan.

The bench observed that Aitzaz cannot cross-examine his own witness – Defence and Cabinet Secretary Nargis Sethi – who appeared before the court as a witness in the case and to present the summaries of May 21 and September 23, 2010 before the court.

Justice Mulk consulted with the bench over the summary and returned it to her. She also noted that her signatures were present in the first paragraph of the summary.

Justice Asif khosa observed that the court “did not understand the purpose” of asking Sethi questions. “Do you want to give Gilani a character certificate?” questioned Justice Khosa.

Barrister Aitzaz said, yes, I want to (give Gilani a character certificate), my main motive is to tell the court what character the accused [Gilani] has.

Attorney General of Pakistan Maulvi Anwarul Haq said, “Being a prosecution in the case, I have some reservations with the method with which he (Aitzaz) is trying to carry the case.

“Nargis Sethi can only testify her own signature. In this hearing, she is attesting other people’s signatures (in the summaries).

The summaries mentioned that the then law minister, Babar Awan and the then law secretary, Pir Masud Chishti had informed the premier that the cases filed against President Asif Ali Zardari in the Swiss courts were withdrawn and that there was no use of writing a letter to the Swiss authorities since there were no cases.

The summaries also said that the court’s orders were not implementable.

Sethi informed the court that she had worked with a lot of people, but considered Gilani to be a very “mild-natured” person. She informed the court that Gilani’s engagements included some that come under rules of business and some that don’t.

She said that Gilani had attended more than 90% parliamentary meetings, he had done the needful in meeting with the coalition partners, making foreign tours et al.

Sethi also pointed out incidences which proved that Gilani had regard for the court and its verdicts. She cited that the premier had ordered that the belongings be returned to the then sacked judge, Justice Khalilur Rahman Ramday and also ordered a probe into the forced vacation of his house.

She also cited the case of promotion of 54 federal secretaries, which was followed and reverted by the premier.

Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, said that the most suitable witness in any case is the person who has spent time with the accused. Nargis has worked with the prime minister, so she can provide the adequate proof of his character.

Later talking to the media outside the Supreme Court, Aitzaz said that the copies of Sethi’s statements will be provided to all the respondents and it will be seen whether her statements were recorded correctly.
He added that if there is any objection to the statements, they will be presented before the judges on Thursday (today).

Aitzaz also complained that he felt that he was not being allowed to cross-question the witness properly during today’s hearing.

I want to prove to the court that the prime minister is not in contempt of the court,” he remarked.

The bench has indicted the prime minister on the contempt of court charges. During the last hearing ‚ the bench on the plea of Aitzaz Ahsan‚ Counsel of the Prime Minister‚ had summoned Cabinet Secretary Nargis Sethi to appear before the court as a witness.

Earlier, the counsel of the Prime Minister’s counsel Aitzaz Ahsan submitted a list of witnesses in the Supreme Court which also included the names of Babar Awan and Law Secretary Masood Chishti. He also prayed the court to call them as witness in the case.

It was said in the application moved in the Supreme Court that that the prime minister, in his personal capacity, did not wish to exercise official power in directing any official to appear as a defence witness. The application, however, also stated that the officials should be summoned by court in the capacity of court witnesses.

However, Babar Awan declined to oblige, saying he had been a lawyer in the NRO review case; therefore, he was not eligible to appear as a witness. He said if he appeared as a defence witness, it would be tantamount to professional misconduct.

Similarly, Law Secretary Masood Chishti offered regrets to appearing as a court witness, saying he too had appeared as a counsel in the NRO review petition. SANA