SC office objects to Gilani's review petition
03 January, 2013
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court's institution branch has raised objections over the review petition of former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani against his disqualification from being member of parliament. According to the details, Gilani had sent the petition via mail, but the Supreme Court's institution branch has raised several objections over it and sent the file of this matter to the relevant authority for a decision. The Supreme Court's office has said the review petition is incomplete and not filed within the prescribed period. It also pointed out that the security challan was also not paid along with the petition. Meanwhile, talking to our sources, a senior officer in the SC denied that the court has rejected the former prime minister's review petition because the matter was referred to the authority concerned for a decision. He, however, admitted that the institution branch raised several objections, but the SC's registrar office had still not decided whether it should entertain Gilani's review petition or not. The sources claimed that the former PM's counsel, Aitzaz Ahsan, has opposed Gilani over the filing of the review petition at the moment. A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, and comprising Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, on June 19 disposed of petitions of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz central leader Khawaja Asif and others against the National Assembly speaker's May 24 ruling on the issue of Gilani's conviction in the contempt of court case. Aitzaz Ahsan was representing Gilani in this case, but he sent the review petition in his personal capacity. The SC in the speaker's ruling case said that a bench of seven judges, through its judgement dated April 26, 2012, followed by the detailed reasons released on May 8, 2012, had found Yousaf Raza Gilani guilty of contempt of court under Article 204(2) of the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973, read with Section 3 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance, 2003 and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment until the rising of the court under Section 5 of the said ordinance, and since no appeal was filed against the judgement, the conviction has attained finality "Therefore, Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani has become disqualified from being a member of the Majlis-e-Shoora (parliament) in terms of Article 63(1)(g) of the constitution on and from the date and time of pronouncement of the judgement of this court dated 26.04.2012 with all consequences, ie, he has also ceased to be the prime minister of Pakistan with effect from the said date and the office of the prime minister shall be deemed to be vacant accordingly." The court observed that neither the speaker nor the Election Commission of Pakistan could sit on the Supreme Court's judgements. It noted that the speaker should not have gone beyond her authority to find faults in the apex court's judgement. The 30-day time given in the constitution to the speaker had also lapsed, therefore she should have sent the matter to the ECP, it noted, asking if the executive scrutinised the judgement of a seven-member bench, how would it reflect on the concept of independence of judiciary. End.
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