ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted 10 days’ time to Privatisation Minister Daniyal Aziz to engage a counsel to defend himself in a contempt of court case, but issued a notice to Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf.

Daniyal Aziz appeared before a three-judge bench headed by Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed to face the contempt of court charges initiated against him on a suo motu by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar.

On Tuesday, another bench had granted a week’s time to Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudhry to engage a counsel of his choice in a similar contempt case.

SC withdraws notice against Raja Pervez Ashraf for want of evidence

Both PML-N leaders are facing contempt charges for contemptuous speeches in different forums.

Meanwhile, a different bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar withdrew a contempt of court notice issued against former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf with an observation that the court had found no evidence of contempt in a letter he wrote to former chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

During the proceedings, the court inquired from Mr Ashraf, present in the court, who had initiated contempt proceedings. But senior counsel Waseem Sajjad, representing the former prime minister, told the court that the notice was issued to his client by the Supreme Court registrar.

The counsel argued that his client, who was prime minister when the notice was issued, had tendered an unconditional apology.

The contempt notice was issued to Mr Ashraf on March 28, 2013 for writing a letter to the chief justice on the rental power plants (RPP) issue.

In his letter, Mr Ashraf had requested the then chief justice to transfer the investigation into the Rs22 billion RPP scam from the National Accountability Bureau to a commission by appointing then Federal Tax Ombudsman Dr Shoaib Suddle as its head.

“Prima facie this [was] tantamount to seek[ing] a favour from the court to leave behind so many procedures,” the apex court had held then while issuing contempt notice to Raja Ashraf. The court had also held that writing such a letter, particularly when he was holding such an important office at that time, amounted to influencing the court.

Meanwhile, the same bench will commence hearing in the controversial Memogate scandal that rocked the country. And when the case will be taken up the contentious question will again arise whether former ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani was coming to Pakistan to appear before the Supreme Court or not.

The case relating to Hussain Haqqani was fixed for hearing when the chief justice had on Jan 29 decided to issue a notice to him to come and face the trial in Pakistan. While hearing a case relating to the grant of right of vote to the overseas Pakistanis, the chief justice had also asked about his whereabouts.

A judicial commission constituted by the Supreme Court had also held Mr Haqqani the originator and architect of the memo on June 12, 2012.

The controversial memorandum was allegedly sent to former US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen seeking direct US intervention to avert a possible overthrow of the civilian government by the military against the backdrop of May 2, 2011, US raid at the Abbottabad compound to kill Osama bin Laden.

Senior counsel Akram Sheikh, who represented Mansoor Ijaz, one of the characters in the scam, before the judicial commission, told Dawn that he would appear before the court on Thursday and argue that whatever allegations levelled had been proven to be right by the commission constituted by the court.

“I will also ask the court to implement the findings of the commission and let Haqqani, who is allegedly a fugitive, face the consequences,” he said.

At the last hearing on June 4, 2013, the Supreme Court headed by then chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry had ordered the interior secretary to adopt legal measures to ensure the return of Mr Haqqani to Pakistan. The court had also hinted at adopting coercive measures in view of the continued refusal of Mr Haqqani to appear before it and honour the commitment he made to come whenever called.

Advocate Asma Jehangir, representing Mr Haqqani, had informed the court then that his client had a paranoid of worst treatment since the petitioner (Nawaz Sharif) in the case had become the new prime minister. Therefore, Mr Haqqani had decided to save his life, she had concluded, adding that she, while following the court directions, had tried her level best to convince Mr Haqqani to come back.

Meanwhile, the same bench summoned on Thursday Shoaib Shaikh and other accused involved in the Axact scam that revolves around fake professional degrees of non-existent colleges and universities.

The bench headed by the chief justice also summoned registrars of the high courts to inform it about the status of FIA appeals against the acquittal of accused in the scam.

The court also dropped hints to place the names of all accused involved in the Axact scam on the Exit Control List.

On Jan 19, the chief justice had taken notice of the Axact scam and sought a comprehensive report from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) director general.

On Wednesday, the FIA DG informed the court that the accused had been acquitted in two cases and appeals against the acquittal were pending before different high courts.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2018