Supreme Court scrutinizes Attorney General’s role in contempt case

Expressing reservations over the list of witnesses in the contempt of court case, the Supreme Court on Monday reserved its verdict on whether Attorney General Irfan Qadir could prosecute the case or not.

A two-member bench with Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan in the chair resumed the hearing of the contempt case against property tycoon Malik Riaz on charges of leveling severe allegations against Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

The Attorney General submitted a list of witnesses which included the names of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, former premier Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, Supreme Court Registrar Dr Faqir Hussain and Arsalan Iftikhar.

Justice Khan said that the name of an important witness was not on the list, adding that the attorney general should have reviewed the list of witnesses before submitting to the court.

Objecting to the including of the chief justice’s name on the witnesses list, the bench asked the attorney general how he could appear in the case as a witness when there were allegations of biasness against him.

The bench further questioned the attorney general as to whether an oath should be taken from a judge in case he/she was to appear as a witness.

In reply to this, the attorney general said that judges had appearing in courts in the past.

Justice Khan asked the attorney general whether he had previously acted as counsel for Riaz and whether he wanted to act as prosecutor in the contempt of court case.

Upon this, Irfan Qadir said such restrictions existed for judges and not for the attorney general and that the case required of him to prosecute Riaz for contempt of court charges.

Justice Khan said the bench had to assess whether Qadir could act independently as prosecutor in the case. Moreover, the court didn’t allow Riaz’s counsel, Abdul Basit, to present his arguments over the issue of prosecutor.

Earlier, a two-member bench of the apex court had formally indicted Malik Riaz on charges of leveling harsh allegations against the chief justice.

It is pertinent to mention that the court had asked Attorney General Irfan Qadir to submit a list of witnesses and evidence to the court.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=32741

Posted by Faisal Farooq on Sep 17 2012. Filed under National. 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.