ISLAMABAD, Aug 24: Attorney General Irfan Qadir said on Friday that under Article 248(1) of the Constitution, the prime minister was not answerable to any court for the exercise of powers and official functioning of his office.

He was talking to reporters at his office in the Supreme Court. In reply to a question about the appearance of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf before the apex court at the next hearing on Aug 27 of the National Reconciliation Order (NRO) implementation case, the attorney general said: “I don’t know about this; it will purely be a decision of the prime minister”.

Asked if the prime minister did not appear before the court, how would the court react, he said: “These are hypothetical questions and I don’t comment on questions based on ifs and buts.”

A five-judge bench, headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, will take up the NRO implementation case on Aug 27.

The court had issued a show-cause notice to the prime minister and asked him to appear before it in person on that date to answer contempt charges.

Justice Ijaz Afzal Khan, Justice Ejaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Muhammad Athar Saeed are other members of the bench.

Article 248 states: The President, a Governor, the Prime Minister, a Federal Minister, a Minister of State, the Chief Minister and a Provincial Minister shall not be answerable to any court for the exercise of powers and performance of functions of their respective offices or for any act done or purported to be done in the exercise of those powers and performance of those functions.”—APP