QUETTA, July 12: The Contempt of Court Act, 2012, has been challenged in the Supreme Court’s Quetta registry.

Baz Muhammad Kakar, a senior Supreme Court lawyer and former president of the Balochistan Bar Association (BBA), and Manzoor Bangulzai, BBA General Secretary, filed a constitutional petition in the Quetta registry on Thursday.

The petition pleaded that the bill was contrary to the Constitution and it was aimed at benefiting certain personalities and the elite only.

It said the constitutional petition had invoked the jurisdiction of the court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution as not only the fundamental rights of the petitioners were involved and were likely to the infringed, but also the public at large. The matter is of public importance with reference to the enforcement of the fundamental rights conferred by Chapter-1 of the 1973 Constitution.

The petition said the act was violative of the provisions of Article 204 of the Constitution.

It further said the independence of judiciary had been guaranteed by various provisions, including Article 2A, 175 and 190, of the Constitution. The power to punish all persons for contempt is inherent in the judicial power.

The petition said that the real objective of the new law was to create a new and privileged class of citizens who were not answerable to the law. The act militates against the principle of supremacy of law.

The petitioners requested the court to declare the Contempt of Court Act, 2012, as violative of fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution and also null and void.