ISLAMABAD, July 22: All eyes are on the Supreme Court which is taking up on Monday a set of challenges to the Contempt of the Court Act, 2012, perceived to have been adopted by parliament to protect Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf from possible disqualification.

The petitions will be heard by a bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and comprising Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani, Justice Jawwad S. Khwaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain.

In all there are 26 petitions against the act and one of the petitioners, Baz Muhammad Kakar, contends that Section 3(i) of the new act curtailed the power and jurisdiction of the court under Article 204(2) of the Constitution to punish ‘any person’ who abused, interfered with or obstructed the process of the court in any way or disobeyed any order of the court.

It also violated Article 25 which guaranteed equal protection of the laws, he said.

A petition filed on behalf of the Save Judiciary Movement by Advocate Hashmat Habib pleads that the law should be struck down because it goes against the Quran and Sunnah and the Contempt of Court Ordinance of 2003 be restored.