Supreme Court removes Attorney General as prosecutor in Riaz Malik case

Expressing annoyance over biasness of Attorney General Irfan Qadir, the Supreme Court on Thursday barred him from acting as prosecutor in the contempt of court case against property tycoon Malik Riaz.

A two-judge bench of the apex court headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan ruled that the attorney general will not serve in the case, adding that he was removed due to his biased behavior.

Moreover, the Supreme Court sought a list of senior lawyers from the Registrar Supreme Court for the appointment as prosecutor in the case against Malik Riaz.

Earlier on Monday, the bench had reserved the order as to whether AG Irfan Qadir could serve as prosecutor or not in the contempt case.

Attorney General Irfan Qadir had filed a plea in the court to make Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry a witness in the case, arguing that judges have appeared before the court in the past.

However, the bench rejected the request saying that the attorney general being a prosecutor was not supposed to defend the accused person.

However, the attorney general said that it is important for the chief justice to appear before the court in order to prove Malik Riaz wrong.

The court should make Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry the prosecutions witness, he requested.

In reply to this, the court reiterated that statements of the attorney general show as if he was defending the accused in the case.

However, Irfan Qadir said that he was an impartial law officer and providing the court his assistance as per the law of the land.

Counsel for Malik Riaz Dr Abdul Basit expressed his reservations over the matter, saying that the court wasn’t authorized to change the prosecutor as per the law.

He further said that senior judges should hear the case related to the chief justice of the country.

He noted, “My client should be freed if the chief justice does not appear as witness in the case since the contempt proceedings began as a result of Malik Riaz scandalizing and leveling serious charges at the chief justice at a press conference”.

In his view, the dignity of the chief justice will be increased if he appeared before the court as a witness in the case.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Sep 20 2012. Filed under 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.