MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered AJK minister for law, justice and parliamentary affairs Sardar Faheem Akhtar Rabbani to personally appear before it on Friday for explanation of his conduct.

The order was issued after Mr Rabbani made a phone call to Chief Justice (CJ) Raja Saeed Akram when he was offering condolences along with two brother judges to Mohammad Azam Khan, one of his predecessors, on the demise of the latter’s sister on the outskirts of Mirpur on Wednesday afternoon.

According to the order, after receiving the call from the minister’s personal assistant, the chief justice was made to hold on until the minister came on line and requested him [the CJ] to convene a meeting of the secretaries of the political parties.

“Prima facie, this indecent act of the Law Minister is contemptuous and amounts to undermining the authority of the Chief Justice who has nothing to do with the meeting of [the] secretaries of the political parties,” the order said.

Keeping in view the gravity of the matter, the CJ immediately convened the meeting of the Judges Council to discuss the conduct of the minister. The council meeting concluded with a unanimous decision to call for an explanation from the minister in this regard.

According to the order, the apex court’s Mirpur circuit office had been directed to serve a notice on Mr Rabbani to appear in person before the court in Mirpur on Friday (August 12) and explain that under what authority/capacity he had directly called the CJ and made a request for holding a meeting with the secretaries of the political parties.

The minister would also explain the way he had talked to the chief justice on telephone.

The court also directed the circuit office to serve a notice on Advocate General Khawaja Maqbool War to ensure the minister’s presence before it on the given date and time.

Though the court order did not specify as to why the minister wanted the CJ to convene a meeting, it was however believed that the government in consultation with other major political parties wanted to seek another extension from the apex court in a deadline for holding long due local bodies (LB) polls in the state.

On July 20, the AJK apex court had extended the deadline it had earlier given to the government for holdingLBpollsfrom Aug 30 to Oct 15 after the advocate general had sought a respite till November this year while citing financial constraints and some other administrative issues.

The full court, headed by CJ Akram, had however made it clear that it would not not grant any further extension to the government in this regard.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2022