SC seeks government reply in memo case

The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday took a serious notice of the attack of government leaders on it for forming a one-man commission on Dec.1 to investigate the memogate scandal and asked the attorney general whether former Law Minister Babar Awan, who led the tirade, represented the government.Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, who chaired the nine-member bench that resumed hearing on the memogate, said commenting on the attacking press conference addressed by Awan and others hours after its issuance, “We can suspend the secretary who was present in the press conference. The government functionaries ridiculed the judiciary in flagrant violation of the dignity of the apex court.”The chief judge said that that Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani should have taken notice of the news conference held by Awan in which he lashed out at the judiciary.Awan had said that by ordering the judicial probe, the court denied a bipartisan and bicameral parliamentary committee on national security its right to hold an inquiry into the memogate scandal.Chaudhry asked whether the attack of Awan and others on the apex court was government’s action or ministers’ individual act, and if it was individual act then what action was taken against the ministers who addressed and attended the press conference.He said the PID of the Federal Ministry of Information and Broadcasting was used to ridicule courts by holding the press conference there.Information Minister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Religious Minister Syed Khurshid Shah, Adviser on Law Farooq, senior ruling party leader Kaira and Awan attended the conference.A member of the bench, Justice Jawad S Khwaja, remarked that the judiciary was an independent organ of the state and was answerable to the people not the parliament. The chief justice said that the Supreme Court always accepted positive criticism on its orders in good faith.He said that Awan brought bad reputation to the family of Tariq Khosa, who was made head of the commission but he later refused to accept the assignment for personal reason, by saying that he was nominated because he was brother of the Supreme Court judge Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Punjab Chief Secretary Nasir Mehmood Khosa.