There was a festive look around the building of Supreme court on the morning of 26th April where seven Honorable Judges of Supreme Court were present to announce the judgment on Contempt of Court against the Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr Yousaf Raza Gilani. The jialas and the leaders of coalition partners of the PPP government were present in great number to listen to the verdict of Supreme Court. Majority of the Federal Ministers, Senators, governors, two sons of PM and his close associates accompanied the PM to Room No. 4 of the Supreme Court at about 9-30 AM. Flower petals were showered on the PM on his way to the court as if he had performed a great feat by disobeying the orders of the Supreme Court i.e not writing a letter to the Swiss government. Taking support of his lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan on one side and Federal Law Minister Farooq A Naik on the other side, the PM walked up to the dock to listen to the judgment. The entire nation was glued to their TV sets to listen to the long awaited judgment.

It took only 30 seconds for Mr Justice NasirulMulk to announce the judgment in his short order who convicted the PM with detention till the rising of the court. After announcing the judgment, the judges left the court and so was the punishment of detention of our PM. On hearing the judgment, the PM gave a smile instead of showing shame for being convicted. As he came out of the court, once again his supporters raised slogans in his favour and he waved to the crowd with a broad smile. The sight was very painful to watch for making mockery of the judgment of the Supreme Court. This is the height of shamelessness of our so-called ruling class. It was not an occasion to rejoice as the chief executive of the country had been convicted by a larger bench of the highest court of the country after long deliberation on the case giving full chance to the best lawyer to defend his client, the PM. With due respect to Mr Aitzaz Ahsan, he fought with the wordings of the charge and the procedural matters all along; even he challenged the trial court for being not competent instead of arguing the actual charge. Even the Attorney General has sided with the accused PM saying that the law under which PM is convicted did not exist. The lawyer in his press conference said that the court did not give him chance to challenge the conviction as one part of the short order was not contained in the original charge sheet of contempt of 13 Feb, 2012 etc. In any case the PM is not the victor in this case but vanquished as the entire nation has heard him ridiculing the judiciary and blatantly refusing to write the letter. It is very unfortunate that we have a law which provides absolute immunity to the President of Pakistan for any crime that he commits in his office which is clearly repugnant to Quran and Sunnah. It is self contradictory to the objective resolution of the constitution which says no law would be framed which is repugnant to the Quran and Sunnah. Why our parliamentarians are reluctant to present a resolution for 21st amendment to the constitution for doing away with this clause to ensure that no one is above the law?
MUHAMMAD AZHAR KHWAJA,
Lahore, April 26.