Let Justice Be Served in Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani’s Case

Let Justice Be Served in Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani’s Case

As soon as the contempt of court punishment of a few seconds was announced to Prime Minister of Pakistan Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, it did not take much time for voices around the country shouting that he must step down on ethical grounds instead of basing
their demands on law.

First of all, there are two ways to view his case. The Prime Minister was served a contempt of court notice for not observing the courts orders on sending a letter to the Swiss government and directly opening up cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.

Looking at it from the courts point of view, PM Gillani did not obey their orders and failed to write the letter, which results in contempt.

Looking at it from a constitutional point of view, the Prime Minister was only upholding the supreme law of the land, otherwise known as the Constitution.

In article 248 (2) of the Constitution, it states that,

“No criminal proceedings whosoever shall be instituted or continued against the President or a Governor in any court during his term of office.”

As the article from the Constitution is very clear on this matter, than why do the superior courts still instigate the old cases against the President. The issue here is not to defend President Zardari, who already spent over 10 years in jail without conviction,
but it is rather to uphold the honour of the position of the President of Pakistan.

President of the Muslim League (Nawaz), Mian Nawaz Sharif, has also decided to initiate a long march against the Prime Minister and has already announced in not believing that Yousaf Raza Gillani is the sitting PM. How does Mr. Sharif support his claim;
as he once was also a victim of the same order of contempt and if the people remember his situation, he reacted by an attack on the Supreme Court building along with removal of the Chief Justice for contempt of parliament.

What the people who are crying foul against PM Gillani need to realise is the fact that rallies, long marching along with any sort of rioting is not and never has been the way to get things done. The same people demand that the rule of law be implemented
in Pakistan and then take out to the streets without actually seeing what remedies the law provides.

The PML (N) is the second biggest political party in the national assembly at the moment and it would be surprising if Mr. Sharif did not know how to legally have the Prime Minister removed.

Why not bring a motion of no confidence against the Prime Minister and use the legal remedies to address the situation instead of creating havoc and possibly gearing up the nation for another military take over?

What seems to be even more surprising is denying PM Gillani the right of an appeal. Along with that, the Supreme Court has not even released the detailed judgement as of yet and any lawyer could tell you that until a full and final judgement is received
in any case, there is no way to file an appeal or go ahead with the procedure.

Prime Minister Gillani became one of the few PM’s in Pakistan’s history to actually go to court in person without an entourage of party workers and actually showed respect towards the courts but on the other side, he would be defying the constitution by
activating cases against the President as well.

Our courts need to realise the fact that Pakistan is going to several issues at the moment and instead of focusing on those that need attention, going after the most useless points has only forced the lawyers to regret their decision of supporting the judiciary
when the judges were locked up by a military dictator.

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Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=21214

Posted by Syed Hassan Bokhari on May 2 2012. Filed under Editorial, Latest News, Opinion, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry