MUZAFFARABAD: A team of the lawyers of former AJK premier Sardar Tanveer Ilyas on Wednesday filed a fresh appeal in the Supreme Court against his disqualification by the high court after their earlier appeal was dismissed on technical grounds.

The fresh appeal is most likely to be heard by the full court, led by Chief Justice Raja Saeed Akram, on Thursday (today).

On Wednesday, as the apex court took up the earlier appeal, CJ Akram wondered how Mr Ilyas had been mentioned as prime minister in it, and asked his counsel if he was still the prime minister then what was being challenged by his legal team in the instant appeal?

“Whether right or wrong, it’s a separate question. But Sardar Tanveer Ilyas has been de-notified by the Election Commission in pursuance of the High Court decision and unless suspended that decision holds the ground,” observed the CJ in a packed courtroom.

On this, the ex-premier’s counsel pleaded that the court should consider it as having been written as ‘former prime minister’ owing to the urgency of the matter due to which the eyes of the whole nation were on the Supreme Court.

“Don’t keep the eyes on us and instead file a proper appeal,” replied an unmoved CJ as laughter filled the courtroom.

“Your appeal is dismissed for being incompetently filed,” he declared, and added: “But you are at liberty to file a fresh appeal… It’s not a joke, it’s the Supreme Court.”

Later, a fresh appeal was submitted by former premier’s legal team, comprising Asghar Ali Malick, Amjad Ali Khan, Sardar Abdul Raziq, Sardar Resham Khan and Haroon Riaz Mughal, in the registrar office after a process that spanned over several hours.

The fresh appeal, seen by Dawn, points out that the AJK High Court can take cognisance of any contempt of itself or of any judge committed within the territorial limits of its jurisdiction, whereas the notice was served on Mr Ilyas on the basis of a speech he had delivered in Islamabad outside the jurisdiction of AJK.

The appeal draws the apex court’s attention towards Article 24(2)(c) of the constitution which states that the disqualification can be made on the basis of a sentence spanning not less than two years. On the contrary, Mr Ilyas was disqualified for a sentence till ‘the rising of the court’ on the basis of which an alleged contemnor cannot be de-seated. While Article 45, which deals with the contempt of court doesn’t define any punishment, the high court delivered the judgement without mentioning the law on the basis of which Mr Ilyas was disqualified.

Similarly, the high court also failed to follow the Criminal Procedure Code and the ex-premier was not given fair opportunity to be heard which warrants dismissal of the impugned judgement, adds the appeal among other things.

On Tuesday, in a largely unexpected move, the full court bench of the AJK High Court disqualified Mr Ilyas from being elected or being a member of the Legislative Assembly or from holding a public office for two years after holding him guilty of contempt.

Hours after the judgement was delivered, a notification was issued by the AJK Election Commission regarding the disqualification of Mr Ilyas with effect from April 11, 2023.

The counsel for Mr Ilyas maintained that the Election Commission had taken an unlawful step by issuing the notification in a hasty manner.

“The Commission cannot disqualify a prime minister or for that matter any legislator in this fashion without following the prescribed procedure,” the counsel said.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2023