Pakistani court questions minister’s statement against judiciary

Pakistani Supreme Court on Monday questioned the Attorney General of Pakistan whether former Law Minister Babar Awan had been representing the Federal Government when he made the offensive remarks against the country Judiciary. Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry heading a nine-member bench of the court was hearing the petitions filed by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and others seeking an inquiry over leaked memo controversy. During the hearing, Chief Justice slammed the ministers’ press conference after December 01 hearing of the case. Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan, Syed Khurshid Shah, Senator Babar Awan and Qamar Zaman Kaira addressed a joint press conference on December 1. The CJ commenting on the press conference said: “We can suspend the secretary who was present in the press conference.” He added that the government functionaries ridiculed the judiciary in flagrant violation of the dignity of the court. Justice Jawad S Khwaja observed that the judiciary was an independent organ of the state and was answerable to the people not the parliament. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has asked Attorney General to present federation’s stance over the ministers’ conference. He said that the court’s orders were ridiculed in the ministers’ press conference while the Press Information Department (PID) was used to ridicule the courts. He observed that the Prime Minister should have taken notice of the act. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry told the Attorney General that Army Chief Ashfaq Kayani gave important points in his reply. There was no reply from the president nor he defended the allegations against him. The Chief Justice also criticised the former ambassador to US Husain Haqqani’s counsel Asma Jehangir by saying that lawyers such as Jehangir watched the judiciary’s criticism in silence. The Supreme Court also asked the Attorney General to place on record a copy of Haqqani’s resignation along with a copy of the notification of the former SC judge Justice Javed Iqbal’s appointment to head the Abbottabad commission. The court adjourned the case till Thursday. According to news reports, a memo was written to former US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen which alleged fears of a military coup in Pakistan and the army’s complicity in the Osama bin Laden raid. The memo was allegedly delivered to Mike Mullen by a Pakistani American businessman Mansoor Ijaz at the behest of Ambassador Haqqani. The memo said that it was a golden opportunity after Osama operation to have a civilian control over the intelligence agencies.