MUZAFFRABAD: In a major setback to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) High Court on Tuesday disqualified Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, both as prime minister and member of the AJK Legislative Assembly, for contempt of court.
The decision of the high court comes after AJK Supreme Court and AJK High Court on Monday summoned Ilyas for using a “threatening tone” in one of his speeches.
Ilyas appeared before the high court where a full bench, led by Chief Justice Sadaqat Hussain Raja, conducted the hearing of the case. During the hearing, clips featuring the prime minister were played and the court asked him if he was contesting the charges.
Ilyas replied in the negative and tendered an unconditional apology to the court. “I place myself at the mercy of the court,” he said. “I apologise unconditionally if any of my words hurt the judge.”
However, Justice Khalid Rasheed questioned what guarantee there was that Ilyas would not resort to doing the same in the future.
The AJK premier’s apology was rejected and he was sentenced till “the rising of the court.”
The order maintained that the court took notice of Ilyas’s anti-judiciary statements and does not accept his apology. With Ilyas’s disqualification, the entire AJK cabinet now stands dissolved.
The court declared Ilyas ineligible from holding any public office and asked AJK’s Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Abdul Rasheed Sulehria to hold polls for a new prime minister.
Later, the AJK Election Commission de-notified Ilyas from his seat in the AJK Legislative Assembly.
Earlier, an order was issued by a two-member bench on a newspaper clipping citing the speech of the prime minister. The bench said that the decision was taken in a meeting of the judges where the issue was discussed at a considerable length and all of them noted that the prime minister’s conduct was contemptuous.
The high court registrar was directed to issue a notice to the AJK prime minister through his principal secretary to appear in person before the court on Tuesday and explain his position. The registrar had also been directed to fix the matter before the full bench.
Ilyas had criticised the stay orders issued by the courts and said the practice was affecting the performance of the government. The stay orders were temporary orders that must be decided within days but they lingered for years, he had said.
Ilyas had accused the judiciary of affecting the workings of his government and intervening in the domain of the executive through stay orders. He had also claimed that a multi-million Saudi-funded education project was incomplete due to a court order. He also spoke against the court orders to reopen tobacco factories that were involved in tax evasion worth billions.
Following the high court episode, Ilyas appeared in the AJK Supreme Court in the contempt of court case. During the hearing, AJK Chief Justice Raja Saeed Akram Khan asked him: “This is your speech?”
He reprimanded the PTI leader for his statements, saying it was the responsibility of Ilyas to support the courts. The AJK CJ then asked: “Why didn’t you come here when you had a problem with the judiciary?”
He said the judiciary had shown “tolerance” towards the premier’s criticism in the assembly. He then told the AJK premier that the positions given to those in power are given only by Allah.
“It is a special gift from God that you are in this position,” he chided Ilyas, declaring that his statement was a “direct contempt of court”.
Saying that the case was very obvious, CJ AJK Supreme Court said there was “no need for any process”. He concluded by saying that he was issuing a notice to the AJK prime minister to give his reply in writing within two weeks.
Meanwhile, PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry said that it is important to respect the decisions of the court whether it is the prime minister of Pakistan or AJK as the country cannot run by destroying the judicial system. “AJK prime minister should tender an apology to the court,” said Fawad, hoping that the Supreme Court would grant him relief.
PTI’s Ilyas served as AJK’s premier for less than a year after being elected unopposed on April 18, 2022.
