ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said on Friday that if the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) came to power after the general elections and formed a government, it would revisit the law governing contempt of court.

Speaking to journalists during an interval in the trial proceedings of the Avenfield properties reference in the accountability court, Mr Sharif said the PML-N had raised the need to examine the contempt of court law as part of judicial reform, which the PML-N had added to its manifesto for the elections.

He was responding to a question regarding recent incidents in which the courts had initiated contempt of court proceedings against politicians, owners of media houses and journalists.

Regarding CJP’s pledge to hold fair elections, ex-PM regrets that apex court has already disqualified head of the largest political party from contesting polls

In the last few months, the superior courts initiated a number of contempt proceedings, including one against ex-senator Nehal Hashmi of the PML-N, who had delivered a speech threatening investigators tasked with grilling the ex-premier’s family in the Panama Papers case. The court had ordered Mr Hashmi to be de-notified from his Senate seat, barred him from holding public office for five years, and jailed him for a month.

After his release, the Supreme Court, once again, started contempt of court proceedings against him for using abusive language against judges of the superior judiciary.

The apex court has also recently indicted PML-N ministers Daniyal Aziz and Mohammad Tallal Chaudhry for contempt of court for making derogatory remarks against the judges.

Similarly, the owner of the Jang media group and several senior journalists are facing contempt proceedings in the Supreme Court and the Islamabad High Court. The chief executive officer of Nawa-i-Waqt group, an anchorperson and producers of Waqt TV also faced contempt proceedings and were pardoned after they tendered apologies.

Mr Sharif said in general, no one could really understand the gravity and implications of such laws unless they were personally affected, or found themselves in the midst of such situations.

“Reforms pertaining to contempt law are the need of the hour, the nation and the country,” he said, adding that, “reforms should be a continuous process and one should not be afraid of improvement in the system.”

Commenting on a question regarding a pledge that Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar had made to hold free, fair and transparent general elections, Mr Sharif replied sarcastically that the superior courts had already disqualified the head of the country’s largest political party from contesting elections or holding office in his own party. He said this was against principles of fairness and transparency.

He pointed out once again that in the lead-up to the election for Senate chairperson, an elected government in Balochistan was overthrown, and a group of people had not only formed a new government in the province, but had also elected six ‘powerful’ senators through support from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), among others.

“They have now been exposed. Their way of politics is to deceive people, manipulate the youth, always looking for the umpire’s signal, using backdoor for politics and they do not have the courage to compete in the field,” he said.

Perhaps this was the reason their rallies had merely 100 or 200 people, he said, adding that this exposed their condition and the condition of their ‘partnership’ in making Sadiq Sanjrani the Senate chairman.

Court proceedings

The head of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) in the Panama Papers case, Wajd Zia, on Friday presented records pertaining to the Avenfield properties in court.

The records that Mr Zia had submitted before the court, except letters from Qatari royal Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani, were photocopies attested by an official of the Supreme Court.

Amjad Pervez, counsel for the Sharif family, pointed out that the photocopies had not been attested in accordance with provisions of the Qanoon-i-Shahadat (Evidence Act).

He said the JIT had obtained the photocopies from the civil miscellaneous applications (CMSs) submitted by PTI chief Imran Khan Niazi, Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz during a hearing of the Panamagate case.

Mr Zia submitted letters from the Qatari royal in which he had expressed willingness to testify in the case, a report of the Hudaibya Paper Mills directors, the official copy of register title for the Avenfield properties, the trust deeds signed by Maryam and Hussain Nawaz, records of the Deutsche Bank, incorporation certificates of offshore companies Nielson and Nescol, and opinions of foreign experts Stephen Marvely and Gilend Cooper.

Mr Pervez termed the evidence inadmissible because an official of the apex court had attested it after examining those photocopies annexed with the CMAs, adding that for the purpose of certification it was mandatory for an attestation authority to examine the original records.

Separately, a security official caught newly-appointed special prosecutor of NAB Arif Rana using his mobile phone during court proceedings. When he reminded him that the use of cell phones was not allowed inside the courtroom, Mr Rana lashed out: “Don’t you know how to talk to a lawyer?” And then added: “Are you supposed to teach me manners?”

At this, the security official quietly shifted to another place.

It is worth noting that journalists are also not allowed to carry their cell phones, even inside the main building of the federal judicial complex. They have to keep the cell phones either inside their vehicles or hand them over to someone outside the premises of the judicial complex.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2018