SC rejects PMs reply on Awans press conference

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SC rejects PMs reply on Awans press conference

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Supreme Court rejected PM Gilanis reply on press conference of former Law Minister Babar Awan.

23 December,2011 11:38 pm

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s reply on the December 1 press conference which was held by former Law Minister Dr Babar Awan.A nine-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry conducted the hearing. The chief justice directed Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq to submit a comprehensive reply as the one he had submitted earlier was “vague”.The Supreme Court said that it found the press conference to be contemptuous to the court. The attorney general told the court that Gilani had termed the press conference as a stance of the Pakistan Peoples Party, not the government.The attorney general read the premier’s statement to the court that said: the statements reflected the historical perspective and did not mean to ridicule the judiciary.Responding to the statement, Justice Jawad S Khwaja said that if it was a political party’s stance, why Awan had chosen official premises.The chief justice observed that in the past there have been contempt of court as well as criticisms by different parties, but he had never expected the PPP to indulge in such a practice.Earlier the chief justice asked the attorney general to state why the federal government had not filed its reply. The AG stated the concerned official was in the process of finalising the details, and the reply will be filed during the course of the day.When Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Ishaq Dar said that the petition did not raise any political questions, the chief justice told him not to deviate from the case and restrict his submissions to the maintainability of his petition in the backdrop of question of public importance.