The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its verdict in a suo moto case against the sit-in staged by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) at Faizabad Interchange in 2017.
Last year in November, the apex court had taken suo motu notice of the three-week long sit-in, which was held against a change in the finality-of-Prophethood oath, termed by the government as a clerical error, when the government passed the Elections Act 2017.
Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan and attorney general of Pakistan (AGP) responded to questions by Justice Isa about whether these authorities can issue a notice to and suspend membership of a party.
Earlier today, Justice Qazi Faez Isa issued a contempt of court notice, saying the attorney general of Pakistan (AGP) has failed to appear once again. The AGP, however, did appear but was late.
During the last hearing on November 16, the AGP had also failed to appear before the court at which Justice Isa had expressed anger and questioned the government’s seriousness in pursuing the case.
As a two-judge bench headed by Justice Mushir Alam resumed hearing the case today, the deputy attorney general informed, “The AGP is attending a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC).”
To this, Justice Isa questioned, “Is the AGP an economic expert? What work does he have in an ECC meeting? Is the AGP the biggest law officer of the state or the prime minister’s personal servant?”
“We are issuing a contempt of court notice,” Justice Isa said.
He further remarked, “The attorney general and all judges are the servants of the state. Is the prime minister above the Supreme Court?”
Justice Isa continued, “The prime minister asked him and he went off. The AGP should have excused himself and informed the premier that he has to appear before the court.”
The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an interim order on the Faizabad sit-in case and had directed the secretary of the ECP to be in attendance on the next date of hearing (today).
Further, the order stated, “We expect the learned AGP to come prepared to attend to the matters noted herein as well those in earlier orders. We also need to determine the parameters of protests and how these have to be handed by the state. In this regard whether there are parallels with earlier protests and how those were handles, including those of May 12, 2007 in Karachi and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) dharna at D-Chowk, Islamabad.”
Hearing the suo motu case on November 16, the two-judge bench had directed the attorney general and information secretary to appear at the next hearing on November 22 (today).
