LAHORE: A full bench of the Lahore High Court has dropped contempt proceedings against Advocate General of Punjab Ahmad Awais.

Mr Awais tendered his resignation saying he did not want to be a reason for any clash between the government and the judiciary. However, in a video message shared on the social media, he announced that he would contest, what he claimed, the gross misconduct, irregularity and illegality committed by the bench.

“Since I have resigned it will be convenient for me to openly contest and reveal facts of the case,” Mr Awais said in the video claiming that he had just tried to lodge a protest before the bench as it was going to announce a verdict without hearing the point of view of the province’s top law officer. Mr Awais sent his resignation to the Punjab governor.

The other day, Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, along with law minister Raja Basharat and other higher-ups, had also appeared before the bench on being summoned. The chief minister had told the bench that the advocate general was ready to resign. He also assured the bench that a new counsel would soon be engaged to represent the government in the case against the formation of a new Joint Investigation Team (JIT) in 2014 Model Town incident.

At this, the bench headed by Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan had reserved its decision to the extent of contempt proceedings against the advocate general and deferred the main case till April 19.

LHC drops contempt proceedings against Ahmad Awais

The bench released its decision on Friday which said the contempt notice issued to the advocate general had been discharged. Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan and Justice Aalia Neelum were the other members of the bench.

On March 22, the bench with a majority decision had suspended the JIT formed by the government to hold a fresh probe into the Model Town incident.

At the time of the announcement of the suspension order, (former) advocate general Awais, along with other law officers, had allegedly created a scene in the courtroom and lodged protest against the verdict on the pretext that the office of the advocate general received no notice from court about the proceedings. The bench had taken exception to the conduct and issued a contempt notice to the advocate general.

The bench in its order noted that an assistant law officer remained present in court during the whole proceedings but he did not opt to come up with arguments when asked by the bench.

Mr Awais had not filed any written apology in response to the contempt notice, however, several bar leaders on his behalf requested the bench to discharge the matter. The PTI-led provincial government had appointed Mr Awais as AGP in September 2018.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2019