Contempt of court law: 5-member SC bench to hear 18 petitions from 23rd

KHUDAYAR MOHLA

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Friday constituted a five-member bench to hear 18 identical petitions, filed against the recently passed ‘Contempt of Court Act 2012’ law. A  five-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice Tassaduq Jilani, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif will hear these petitions on July 23.

Earlier, a bench led by Chief Justice conducted preliminary hearing of petitions at Quetta Registry before it issued notices to Federation, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, Chairman Senate Syed Nayyar Bukhari, Speaker National Assembly Dr. Fehmida Mirza, Law Minister Farooq H. Naek along with Attorney General for Pakistan Irfan Qadir and Secretary Cabinet Division.

According to some of the petitioners, Contempt of Court Act 2012 is an attempt to grant immunity to all public office holders against contempt of court in general and to protect incumbent Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf from meeting the fate of his predecessor’s.

Sources were of the view that government had decided to defend stoutly the Contempt of Court Act 2012 in Supreme Court. In this regard, a number of former PCO judges have been contacted to plead the case. They include Shabbar Raza Rizvi, Qalab-e-Hussain and Ahsan Bhoon.