August 11, 2006	Friday	Rajab 15, 1427

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LAHORE, Aug 10: Senior advocate Tariq Aziz on Thursday served notices on the National Assembly speaker and all leaders of parliamentary parties in the legislature against taking part in the proceeding on the bill that seeks to allow a one-dish feast at weddings.

The lawyer said in the legal notice that the NA was debating a bill which was sent by the law ministry in violation of a Supreme Court decision though the apex court had enunciated in 2004 that feasts on marriage were mere wastage of time and money and could be rated as an evil which had created serious inequities in society.

The lawyer warned speaker Chaudhry Amir Husain, ruling party leader Chaudhry Shujaat Husain, PPP (Parliamentarian) leader Makhdoom Amin Faheem, MMA’s Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Qazi Husain Ahmad, Tehrik-i-Insaaf chairperson Imran Khan, federal law minister Chaudhry Mohammad Wasi Zafar, federal ministers Aftab Ahmad Sherpao, Rao Sikandar Iqbal, Faisal Saleh Hayat and certain selected MNAs to refrain from enacting the law.

Failing this, he said that he would be constrained to move the Supreme Court in a contempt of court against all of them.

The lawyer said in his notice that the apex court had, in 2004, sought a report from the Council of Islamic Ideology in the hearing of a petition for leave to appeal against the decision of the LHC prohibiting the one-dish meal in weddings.

The council quoted from various Surahs of the Holy Quran to report that the spending of wedding parties was wastage of time and money and was also against the spirit of Islamic teachings and principles.

The Supreme Court also made similar observation while dismissing the appeal on Nov 11, 2004, and then also dismissing the review petition on the same matter on Dec 29 the same year.

He said the apex court decision was now a law which was binding on the NA and its members.