Refusal to hold elections: Contempt action against PM, ministers won’t take even a day, says Aitzaz

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader and prominent jurist Barrister Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan Wednesday said that it will not take even a day to implicate the prime minister, interior minister and law minister in a contempt of court case after the government refused to hold elections (to Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies).

Speaking in Geo News programme Capital talk, hosted by Hamid Mir, Aitzaz said that division among the Supreme Court judges was alarming. “I’ve been saying for the past three or four years that there is a grouping, an intense grouping (among SC judges).”

The veteran lawyer said that he has know Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial since his childhood, adding that he is a gentleman but he has been trapped in division (among judges). He lamented that the CJP is being criticised for a judgement that appears in Imran Khan’s favour, but the same CJP was eulogised when he opened the court at midnight to block assemblies dissolution.

He said the chief justice could facilitate if the government and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) come on the same page on election dates.

He said that sword of Damocles still hangs on PTI Chairman Imran Khan as there were references like Toshakhana’s against him and he could be disqualified, but it won’t be easy because now gifts taken by Maryam Nawaz and others would also come before court.

He said the one who says elections could be dragged beyond 90 days is actually advocating the doctrine of necessity.