ISLAMABAD, Jan 17: Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) on Wednesday filed a contempt of court petition in the Supreme Court against President General Pervez Musharraf for announcing that Basant festival would be celebrated in the country.

Addressing a news conference here, PML-N’s joint secretary Siddiqul Farooque said that the petition had been filed by him under Article 204 of the Constitution and Clauses 3 and 4 of the Contempt of Court Act 2004 through his lawyer Mohammad Ikram Chaudhry.

Earlier, PML-N’s secretary-general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra had filed a contempt of court petition against Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Jan 13 for issuing a statement that the government would not reduce oil prices despite the fact that a case in this regard had been pending in the SC. The petition, however, was dismissed by the SC on the basis of Article 248 which states: "The president, a governor, the prime minister, a federal minister, a minister of state, the chief minister and a provincial minister shall not be answerable to any court for the exercise of powers and performance of functions of their respective offices or for any act done or purported to be done in the exercise of those powers and performance of these functions."

Mr Farooq said the Supreme Court had banned kite-flying last year after taking suo motu action on the loss of lives because of the use of metal strings during the Basant festival. He said that during the past seven years, 186 people had lost their lives and another 4,101 people were injured because of the use of metal strings in kite-flying.

Mr Farooq said despite the apex court’s ban, the Punjab government had announced a few days ago to observe the Basant festival on Feb 24-25. The apex court, he said, had taken notice of this act of the provincial government and issued a notice to the advocate-general of Punjab to appear before the court to explain the situation.

He said when the case was still pending before the Supreme Court, the president issued the statement which fell in the jurisdiction of the misuse of his office and powers. He also termed it a violation of his oath, saying that Gen Musharraf had attempted to damage the court’s authority.