Contempt of court bill to impede justice: Imran

11 Jul, 2012

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Tuesday said that the recently passed contempt of court bill by the National Assembly would impede natural justice as it was against the constitutional spirit and teachings of Islam. Speaking at a press conference, he said that the bill was amounted to disgrace the court and to clip the independence of judiciary.
It had been introduced to save the new premier from disqualification and to provide a shied to millions of rupees of President Zardari in Swiss accounts, he added.
He said that the bill should be struck down at once and if the government tried to confront with judiciary, it would be considered an open attack on the independence of the Supreme Court.
The parliament by adopting the controversial law, he added, had sent a message to the top bureaucracy to help the regime without any fear to hide and defend its corruption, as there would be nobody to question them.
"Nawaz Sharif had also attempted to curb the independence of judiciary by introducing 15th Constitutional Amendment during his regime...[and] it has become a quite common practice that respective governments have been formulating laws of their choices," he regretted.
Imran said the political parties who voted in favour of the controversial bill should revisit their policies as their support to NRO tinted government was leading the country towards a complete collapse.
The PTI chief also opposed the proposed 22nd Constitutional Amendment that if passed would allow Pakistanis with dual nationality to become member of the country's Parliament.
"PTI considers the overseas Pakistanis as a great asset. The party had also moved the court to achieve fundamental right, right to vote, for dual nationals. But PTI thinks the dual nationals can not undertake the legislation in favour of the country," Imran remarked.
He said the government was preparing to adopt 22nd Constitutional Amendment to facilitate those dual national, who always caused great loss to the country.
"It is for those people, who piled up their accounts in foreign countries by doing corruption in Pakistan and on that basis they got nationalities of other countries. It's not for genuine dual nationals who have been contributing to the economy of the country. In this matter PTI will stand by the Constitution not with the government," Khan said.
Appreciating the naming of former justice Fakhruddin G Ebrahim for the slot of Chief Election Commissioner, Imran said there was no question on the integrity and neutrality of justice Ebrahim and PTI had full confidence in his personality.
Responding to a question, Khan said his party leaders were deliberating on moving the court against the contempt of court bill.

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