Aitzaz urges SC, opposition to apply restraint

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Aitzaz urges SC, opposition to apply restraint

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Eminent lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan has urged SC to take a lenient view in NRO implementation case.

26 July,2012 07:31 am

While talking to Dunya News after an event at the Carnegie Institute in Washington, DC on Wednesday, he said that the opposition parties in Pakistan were dragging every matter to the Supreme Court (SC) unnecessarily and the urgent relief granted to them was creating an impression within the PPP circles that they were being hard done by.On the recent proceedings of the NRO implementation case, in which the PM was given time till August 8th to write a letter to Swiss authorities, he said I have been asking the Supreme Court since January to take a lenient position. This is not an issue of corruption, but of the appropriate forum. How can the elected president of Pakistan as per the constitution, be it Asif Zardari or anybody else, be tried in any other countrys court? There has been no such instance anywhere in the world during the last 500 years or so.When his attention was drawn at a relatively softer tone of the judges in the proceedings on Wednesday, he said that he had been arguing in the SC for a softer stance and urging them to look at other options. If they are looking at such options now, thats good even if it has taken so long to realize what I have been saying. Yousuf Raza Gilani had to go home, but if the new Prime Minister (Raja Pervez Ashraf) can get some relief, it is still good, he remarked.When asked if the SC did not change its stance vis-a-vis letter to Swiss authorities, he said this would not change the position of government. I have been submitting before the Court even earlier that there will be a line of Prime Ministers coming in and going out one after the other but nobody will write a letter to Swiss courts. And if any PM will openly say that I wont write a letter because Ill not let our president to appear before a Swiss magistrate in a humiliating manner, then what well do.The sixth option that I urged the SC to consider was their own, which related to sending this matter to the parliament or to leave this matter to the judgement of the people in the next election, Aitzaz said while mentioning the six options that have been a subject of debate ever since the NRO implementation case started.On CJPs comment that parliament had no absolute power, he termed it justified to a certain extent. It is true that parliament is not an absolute power, but not entirely true. Parliament is the creator of the constitution and is supreme by two third majority under article 239 of the constitution. It can change the constitution with two third majority and there is no basic structure in Pakistans legal framework and constitution that it cannot change, he explained.This was also the premises of the judgement in Zafar Ali Shah case in which the chief justice was himself part of the bench. I also agree with the CJ that parliament is not supreme only with a simple majority, Aitzaz said while going on to explain both scenarios.He agreed that lawyers were trying to become a party in the newly passed Contempt bill from the parliament that has now been challenged in SC, but asserted that there were reasons behind it. Several political parties have also, to a certain extent, tried to make SC controversial by becoming party in cases. PML-N takes all cases to SC, like the memo case in which it got relief instantly and a commission was made. Same goes for Imran Khan and these peiople dont even wait for the case to mature or for the cause of action to be there before approaching the Supreme Court, he regretted.Explaining the thought process in the ruling party, he said PPP says that its cases are not heard. They dont get relief like other parties. It should not happen like this because SC is a very sacred institution. We have given many sacrifices and so has the CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry for the independence of this Court, he said.This impression of selective relief by the Court is only at a primary stage but it will aggravate overtime if these parties continued to get relief from the Court, he warned.Aitzaz also opined that these matters, recently taken up by the political parties, should not go to Court in the first place. On the issue of passing of new Contempt bill from the parliament, he refrained from commenting. This case in the court now and I have already made my opinion clear in the parliament. Therefore, I would not want to add anything to that.- Contributed by Awais Saleem, Dunya News correspondent in Washington, DC