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ISLAMABAD: The registrar of the Supreme Court has clarified the position of his office in the wake of a controversy over dispatch of a (covering) letter along with two court orders of April 26 in the contempt case against Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
“This is in line with the procedure and there is nothing irregular or improper in following this procedure,” a statement issued by Dr Faqir Hussain said.
On Saturday, Law Minister Farooq Hameed Naek described the covering letter addressed to the National Assembly speaker, Chief Election Commissioner and other high offices by an assistant registrar as overstepping of his power as a civil servant and said that a privilege motion would be tabled in the assembly against him.
He said the assistant registrar was not authorised to issue directives to the speaker.
The statement of the registrar said: “Reference statement of the federal law minister appearing today in the media, taking exception to the letters of assistant registrar (implementation), Supreme Court of Pakistan, addressed to the Speaker, National Assembly, and Election Commission of Pakistan, etc, it is clarified that all court orders, without any exception, are forwarded to the concerned authorities / departments for implementation and compliance.
“This is in line with the Supreme Court Rules 1980 and there is nothing irregular or improper in following this procedure.”
But, MNA Fauzia Wahab of the PPP said the clarification was not enough. “What was the hurry to forward a short order which did not give any details about the case?” She said it was not an ordinary case but that of the prime minister of the country.
“I condemn this tendency of issuing a short order without clarity on a most contentious issue since there was nothing to impede the way for giving a detailed judgment in the case that had been heard for quite some time,” she said.
“Why could Mr Faqir Hussain not wait for the detailed order since the short order was not enough to throw light on the whole issue?”
The PPP leader said the prime minister was a respectable citizen who had been deprived of knowing what the real crime was of which he had been convicted.
