ISLAMABAD, July 13: After a stormy session, the Pakistan Bar Council jumped on the anti-government bandwagon on Friday by deciding to challenge the Contempt of Court Act 2012 passed recently in haste by the PPP government to save the new prime minister.

The Supreme Court has already fixed July 23 to hear a number of petitions filed before it against the Contempt of Court Act 2012 and has directed Attorney General Irfan Qadir to submit replies.

Presided over by Advocate Hamid Khan in the absence of PBC Vice Chairman Akhtar Hussain, who is indisposed, the requisitioned meeting was held after defeating by a majority a veto by Attorney General Irfan Qadir, who by nature of his office acts as the chairman of the council.

In a letter to the PBC, the AG had stated that the requisitioned meeting could only be called if it did not violate any provision of the constitution and therefore Friday’s meeting had no nexus with the functions of the council. “In fact the proposed meeting seeks to create hurdle in the way of parliament to perform its legislative functions,” the AG had stated.

Consequently nine members voted in favour of going ahead with the petitionmajority against seven members in opposition of the 21-member body. Among others Rasheed A. Razvi, Zia A. Awan, Mian Abdul Qudoos, Syed Kaleem Ahmed Khurshid, Saeed Akhtar Khan and Shaukat Ali Khan were in attendance.

The members then held a separate meeting to adopt five resolutions in a row. One of these resolutions condemned in strongest words the move by the PPP government to pass a legislation exempting the prime minister, chief ministers and the federal and provincial ministers from contempt of court proceedings. “The PBC is of the view that the Contempt of Court Act 2012 being ultra vires of the Constitution is liable to be struck down,” the resolution said.

The courts shall be practically barred from entertaining legal challenges to ministerial actions since they will be unable to effect compliance of their orders, it said, adding the measures would undermine the constitutional scheme of checks and balances between different organs of the state by elevating the executive to a superior status free from scrutiny and accountability.

It shall also give a free hand to corruption, mis-governance and tyranny, the resolution said, adding that the bar council considered it an attempt on part of the government to weaken the judiciary and to undermine its independence.

It said the council and the entire legal fraternity fully supported the independence of judiciary and would like to ensure that all judicial verdicts were fully complied with in letter and spirit. It also said that the new law violated Article 204 of the Constitution (contempt law) and curtailed powers of the courts to do justice, thus violating Articles 175, 184 and 199 of the Constitution.

In a separate resolution, the PBC asked the legal fraternity to observe a black day on July 23 – a day when the Supreme Court will commence hearing challenges against the new contempt law.

The PBC calls upon the provincial bar councils, high court bar associations, district and sub-divisional bar associations to hoist black flags on their buildings and observe a protest day with full day strike.

Through yet another resolution, the PBC decided to file a petition challenging the Contempt of Court Act 2012 by authorising Akhtar Hussain and Chairman of Executive Committee Burhan Moazzam Malik to file and prosecute the petition against the act. The meeting also passed a resolution concerning procedure on holding the requisitioned sessions of the council and appreciating lawyers’ struggle against what they called unconstitutional law of contempt. They also resolved that judgments of the Supreme Court, including the NRO, should be implemented immediately.