Prime Minister Gilani acted on advice; says Aitzaz

Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, the counsel of Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani in the contempt of court notice, on Thursday contended that the premier acted on the advice of the law ministry in accordance with rules of business.

In order to strengthen his argument, he also presented Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s earlier order, which said that the prime minister is obliged to take advice in all matters before taking any major step.

The premier’s counsel had stressed in the last hearing that his client did not take the decision of not writing the letter to Swiss authorities himself, but was in lieu advised against it.

Aitzaz Ahsan during the hearing argued that following the chief justice’s earlier ruling, the PM was supposed to seek advice from the Law Ministry and the Human Rights Division before taking any action. He further stated that the advice he received in this NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance) implementation case was not in favour of the court’s verdict.

Justice Nasirul Mulk in the course of ruling remarked that the premier was efficient in listening to the Law Ministry and the Human Rights Division, but did not give due consideration to the court’s rulings.

Whereupon, he also observed that on one hand there is advice and on the other hand there were clear court rulings. He asked that could the prime minister not reject the advice.

In counter argue, Aitzaz replied that he could but the safe way was to implement it.

Earlier, at the end of Wednesday’s proceedings, the bench asked Ahsan to complete his arguments by Thursday before the tea-break and, if convinced by his arguments, the court would discharge the contempt or move ahead with formally framing the charge against Prime Minister Gilani.

It remarked, “This is a preliminary hearing in which the court has to test the bona fide of the prime minister.”

A nine-judge bench comprising Justice Nasirul Mulk, Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmani, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Athar Saeed is hearing the show cause notice served upon the Prime Minister in the NRO implementation case.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Feb 2 2012. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.