PPP secy general says judiciary retarding democracy in Pakistan
All parliamentarians should come together to define circumstances warranting issuance of judicial contempt notices
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Secretary General Latif Khosa on Sunday said maximum number of contempt notices had been issued to lawmakers and politicians since the restoration of the judiciary in November 2007.
In a press statement, Khosa said the judiciary had, to an extent, retarded the growth of democracy in Pakistan.
He said the contempt notices were issued to former prime ministers, including Yousaf Raza Gilani, Raja Pervez Ashraf and Nawaz Sharif, which led to the imposition of martial law in 1998.
“It is imperative in the interest of the development of the democratic system that contempt notices be issued sparingly to legislators and heads of the political parties,” he said, adding that rampant issuance was fraught with dangers for the continuity of the political process.
Khosa said the highest court in the United Kingdom (UK), the House of Lords, had issued one or two contempt notices over 50 years.
Despite the fact that a newspaper termed the judges donkeys the UK court did not issue any contempt notice, which enhanced the judges’ stature.
He said Article 19 of the constitution stated the freedom of speech and expression as a fundamental right of the citizens of Pakistan, which was critical for the promotion of democracy and should be protected by giving the benefit of doubt to the people.
Khosa said the contempt notice to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan was a wake-up call and all parliamentarians should come together to clearly define the circumstances warranting the issuance of judicial contempt notices.
“Failure to do so will put the future of democracy at stake,” he warned.
Khosa said the Contempt Ordinance 2002 promulgated by General (r) Pervez Musharraf did not exist because it was not sanctified by parliament.
“Therefore, the parliament needs to come up with a law on the subject soon,” he said.
The PPP leader said fiddling of the judiciary in the political domain would lead to tensions between the judiciary and the politicians as well as between the judiciary and the people, which would not augur well for the administration of justice.
He referred to the recent resolution of the Lahore High Court Bar, the biggest bar in Asia, in which it vowed to take legal recourse to proceed against violators of the constitution.
Khosa said the politicians, lawyers and the civil society had launched the struggle for the restoration of the judiciary to ensure the prevalence of “rule of law”.
He said they wanted the judiciary to come up to their expectations and pose minimum hurdles in the ongoing evolutionary process of democracy.
I agreed with khosa to some extend its bad situation especially for the people having less knowledge about law ; MR khosa and most prominent leaders are responsible for the situation who ignored the proper legislation on the issue of contepmt of court as well as the all types of other laws most regularly used in Pakistan legal system
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