Since the day one, it was widely predicted and expected that the top-most law officer of the federal government would do what he precisely did on Thursday. The primary purpose of inducting him replacing suave Maulvi Anwaarul Haq was to take on the judges in an offensive way. It is unthinkable that an educated man like him would behave as an uncouth person.

His intolerably obscene and depraved gesticulation against the judges in the packed-to-capacity Courtroom No 1 was unfathomable, unheard of, and unparalleled in the judicial history. “Irfan Qadir might have been lynched by the lawyers sitting in the courtroom then and there had Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry not come to his rescue,” said a leading TV anchor, who saw the despicable scene.

To calm down tempers and avert physical thrashing of the attorney general, the chief justice said everybody had the right to speak in the court and lawyers should not become emotional.

Since his appointment, the attorney general has made it a point to oppose each and everything that the judges sitting on different benches believe, perceive and decide. He is yet to make any worthwhile contribution in even crucial judicial proceedings. He acts like a spoilt child, whose harangue is consistently ignored by the honourable judges.

Never in the judicial history has an attorney general been so rude and insulting to the judges of the highest court. The justices deserve full marks for tolerating the antics of such a person.While acting as prosecutor in the contempt proceedings against Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in the Supreme Court in April, he also went berserk and smashed hook, line, and sinker everyone coming in his way, reserving the severest attack for the Supreme Court. He crossed the limits, but was not awarded the punishment that he otherwise deserved.

What Qadir argued wholly proved him as more loyal to the king than the king himself. Even PM Gilani’s counsel Aitzaz Ahsan could not say in the prime minister’s defence in his protracted submissions what the prosecutor had the gall to state, with the judges oddly giving him a patient hearing, remaining unruffled and cool and composed. The prosecutor also supported each and every argument of the defence lawyer that established that the two were hand-in-glove as per a planned strategy. In fact, he went far ahead of Aitzaz Ahsan in several aspects.

His hilarious harangue was an engaging entertainment, provoking grins. At the end of his tirade, which was bizarre in Pakistan’s judicial history, Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, who had led that bench, made a tongue-in-cheek remark that he was the first one appearing before it who had come out with new ideas.

Confirming that he was in cahoots with the defence lawyer, Irfan Qadir said he honestly feels that he has not found even an iota of evidence that showed that the prime minister committed contempt of court. It was never felt even for a passing moment by anyone in the courtroom that a prosecutor was speaking, calling for the conviction of the accused.

He had stated that the basic problem ‘we are facing’ was that the Supreme Court has assumed complete control of state institutions, including the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). He tried to further degrade the court saying that the job of no honest person was safe because of the apex court. Everyone — attorney general, federal law secretary, NAB chairman and its prosecutor general — had to leave due to the court.

Then he quickly contradicted himself without realising and admitting his bloomers. “Sir, do you think, NAB Chairman Navid Ahsan was removed because of your judgment? No, my lord — he continued for over a year after your decision and went only after the court assumed charge of the NAB. He then resigned. Do you think the NAB Prosecutor General (Danishwar Malik) went because of your judgment? No my lord — he left due to the heart problem.

“Judges sitting in that bench were biased. This judgment is un-implementable in every respect,” he said, while referring to the 17-judge bench’s ruling against the NRO.“You know the government implemented the judgment except its paragraph 178,” Justice Nasirul Mulk pointed out to him. “My lord, the government lied to you and continues to lie. It doesn’t have the courage to tell the truth. I tell you the truth which is that the decision has not been implemented at all,” Irfan Qadir said.

In its judgment, Justice Nasirul Mulk-led seven-member bench found it ‘intriguing’ that exercising his powers Gilani replaced Maulvi Anwaarul Haq, who was prosecuting him. It said that Qadir did not put forth arguments in favour of the prosecution rather pleaded that there was no evidence, whatsoever, on the basis of which Gilani could be held guilty of contempt.