ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court may take up a petition seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for his anti-judiciary rhetoric.

Moved by Makhdoom Mohammad Niaz Inqilabi, a Rawalpindi-based lawyer who has filed a number of petitions against the former prime minister recently, the fresh petition is expected to be taken up by a single bench of Justice Amir Farooq.

In the five-page petition in Urdu, the habitual petitioner has pleaded before the court that the statement in which Mr Sharif had equated the language used by the Supreme Court judges during a hearing of a case with what his arch-rival Imran Khan used against him amounted to ridiculing the judges and scandalising the superior judiciary.

The statement, which Mr Sharif gave while talking to reporters outside an accountability court on Feb 15, was widely published by newspapers and aired by different news channels, he contended.

SC issues show-cause notice to Daniyal Aziz; time offered to Tallal in contempt case

Thus, the alleged contemptuous statement warranted immediate attention of the court by initiating contempt proceedings against Mr Sharif by the high court, the petitioner SAID, adding that the contemnor should also be punished under Article 63(1 g) of the Constitution.

This would help in discouraging airing of contemptuous statements by private television channels and printing of the same by newspapers, the petitioner stated.

On Jan 4, the high court had dismissed a similar petition seeking contempt of court proceedings against Mr Sharif by the same petitioner.

The lawyer had also sought an order for putting the name of Mr Sharif on the Exit Control List and challenged the Elections Act, 2017, even before the promulgation of the law.

Meanwhile, talking to a private news channel on Monday night, Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal said former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had been removed from his post “and now if his speeches are banned then the people of Pakistan will think of this as pre-poll rigging”.

He added that efforts were being made to remove the PML-N chief from the country’s political landscape.

In reply to a question about the change of government’s policy regarding the higher judiciary, Mr Iqbal said that the PML-N had no agenda and they wanted to ensure that all institutions worked within their constitutional ambits.

“As a democratic force we want to avoid confrontation between institutions. The opposition and the government should be able to discuss the issue, not be divided over it,” he said.

Show-cause notice

The Supreme Court on Monday issued a show-cause notice to Privatisation Minister Daniyal Aziz for allegedly committing contempt of court and appointed Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf as prosecution.

At the same time, a different bench of the apex court again afforded time to Minister of State for Interior Mohammad Tallal Chaud­hry to engage a counsel of his choice in a similar contempt case.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed issued the show-cause notice to Mr Aziz for his statements aired by a number of private television channels on Dec 15 and June 9, 2017.

“Prima facie the statements amount to committing contempt of the court,” the court observed while initiating the contempt proceedings under the Contempt of the Court Ordinance, 2003, read with Article 204 of the Constitution.

Mr Aziz and Mr Chaudhry are facing the contempt charges initiated against them on suo motu by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar.

Both the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders face contempt charges for their alleged contemptuous speeches in different public meetings.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2018