LHC not satisfied with AG’s reply

LAHORE: A full bench of Lahore High Court on Thursday showed dissatisfaction with a written reply submitted by Advocate General Punjab Ahmad Awais to a contempt notice issued to him for his contemptuous conduct during announcement of a verdict against Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on Model Town incident.

The bench headed by Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan also the exhorted the top provincial lawyer to abstain from dragging the bar members in the matter and he should appear as a law officer.

Several senior bar members also joined Mr Awais during the hearing in order to persuade the bench to discharge the contempt notice. Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad and Justice Aalia Neelum were the other members of the bench. During the course of hearing, the bench asked Mr Awais that his response showed that he wanted to contest the contempt notice. Recalling the objectionable conduct of the advocate general, the bench said it exercised maximum restraint as skipped many facts of the episode, in its written order, only to protect the dignity of the institutions. AGP Awais said he had a great respect for the institution of judiciary and could not even think of committing contempt of court. To a court’s query, Mr Awais said he had no meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar on the subject matter. The bench reminded the principal law officer that there was an impression that he had created a scene in the courtroom with the consent of Prime Minister Imran Khan and the chief minister.

Mr Awais, who was among the founding members of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, stated that he had not caused any rumpus in the court and action was being taken against those law officers involved in the episode.

The bench observed that it would be better if the advocate general tendered unconditional apology for his conduct. The bench adjourned hearing until Friday (today) asking the advocate general to come up with a satisfactory reply. On March 22, the bench with a majority decision of two to one had suspended the JIT formed by Punjab government to hold fresh probe into the Model Town incident. At the time of the announcement of the suspension order, AGP Awais along with other law officers had lodged a protest in the courtroom against the verdict on a pretext that the office of the advocate general received no notice from the court about the proceedings.

The bench had taken notice of the conduct and issued a contempt notice to the advocate general.