Azad Kashmir High Court disqualifies AJK PM Sardar Tanveer Ilyas Khan in contempt of court case
MUZAFFARABAD, April 11 (SABAH): The full court bench of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) High Court on Tuesday disqualified Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas Khan from being a member of the legislative assembly in the contempt of court case. The court has ordered Azad Jammu and Kashmir Election Commission (AJK EC) to revoke the assembly membership of Sardar Tanveer Illyas and also issue his disqualification notification.
A full bench headed by Chief Justice AJK High Court Justice Sadaqat Hussain Raja announced the verdict in a contempt notice taken after he criticised the stay orders issued by the court at a public meeting.
Full court bench included Justice Mian Arif Hussain, Justice Liaqat Shaheen, Justice Syed Shahid Bihar, Justice Sardar Ijaz and Justice Khalid Rasheed which completed the hearing in a single day and announced verdict after two hours. The prime minister was present at the court at that moment. On the directions of chief justice, Justice Khalid Rasheed read out the verdict according to which he was disqualified from membership of assembly and being prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
He had appeared before the court and tendered his unconditional apology over using contemptuous remarks against the judiciary. The chief justice asked Sardar Tanvir Ilyas Khan to see videos of his statements at first after which videos were run and then series of questions was initiated.
The chief justice said, “Have you seen videos?” To this, Tanveer Ilyas replied, “yes”. Then Justice Khaliq Rasheed started questions that does he confirm that it was his conversation. To this, the prime minister replied, he receives a written speech whereas the court expressed its annoyance and ordered him to give answer in yes or no. To this, the prime minister confessed that he had delivered these speeches. After putting a number of questions before him, the bench turned down his apology and disqualified him as AJK prime minister and revoked his membership of the AJK assembly. He is the first AJK prime minister to have been sent packing by court. The AJK premier was sentenced till the rising of the court.
An order was issued by a two-member bench on a newspaper clipping citing the speech of the prime minister said the decision was taken in a meeting of the judges where the issue was discussed at a considerable length who noted that the overall conduct of the prime minister was contemptuous.
The high court registrar had been directed to issue a notice to the AJK prime minister through his principal secretary to appear in person before the court on Tuesday and explain his position. The registrar had also directed to fix the matter before full bench.
Meanwhile commenting on the development, PTI leader and former minister for information and broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said that whether it was the prime minister of Pakistan or AJK, respecting the decision of the courts was necessary.
“This country cannot be run by destroying the judicial system,” he said, urging Ilyas to apologise and expressing the hope that he would be given relief by the SC. Fawad further stated that the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif should learn a lesson from the court’s decision.
On Monday, the superior courts of AJK had separately served notices to Sardar Tanveer Ilyas to explain his position with regard to his “derogatory remarks about the superior judiciary in his speeches at public meetings”.
The notices, served through his principal secretary, asked Ilyas to separately appear before the high court and the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
At a function in Islamabad over the weekend, Ilyas had indirectly blamed the judiciary for affecting the functioning of his government and interfering in the domain of the executive through the grant of stay orders.
He had particularly referred to a $15 million Saudi-funded education sector project, saying it had been in a limbo because the court had issued a stay order on it. Similarly, he had also taken strong exception to the “de-sealing by the courts of tobacco factories involved in tax evasion to the tune of billions of rupees”.
Producing the clipping of the premier’s speech in its order, the AJK court said that the matter was discussed in a meeting of the judges’ council “in view of its seriousness” and it was unanimously decided “it could not be overlooked because the dignity and authority of the courts was on stake and nobody could be allowed to undermine it”.
“However, […] before issuing contempt notice we are intended to ask the prime minister to appear in person and explain his position on the referred news,” it added.
The high court order had almost identical observations.
“Prime Minister Tanveer Ilyas has directly threatened the superior judiciary and the language of his speech at a public meeting is highly derogatory, improper and indecently worded,” the order said.
Not only the latest statement, but his “previous track record from several months is [also] objectionable, unbecoming and improper,” it added.
The order said the judges’ council of the high court had unanimously decided not to leave the matter unattended “simply by shutting [its] eye from contemptuous and derogatory statement of the person who is at the helm of affairs.”
“By showing magnanimity and judicial restraint, we have opted, in the beginning of the proceedings, to serve a notice on the prime minister to personally appear before the full court to explain his position.”