Contempt notices for Nawaz, nine others

Pakistan's supreme court on Monday issued contempt notices to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief and nine others with regard to a petition filed by a lawyers' body.

The Supreme Court Bar Association petition maintains that the Sharief government's criticism of Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah's order which provisionally suspended an anti-defection law amounted to contempt of court.

The contempt notice handed to Sharief and others has asked the state prosecutor to appear before the court next week to present the government's position.

This follows the climax of a three-month-old head-on confrontation between Justice Shah and Sharief, wherein the prime minister had used the official media to fight the supreme court demand that five judges be elevated to the high court.

Finally on Friday, Sharief had bowed to Justice Shah, announcing in the national assembly -- the lower house -- that the chief justice had the right to appoint judges and he did not want an 'unnecessary confrontation.' He would personally see that the assembly passes a bill approving the appointment, Sharief had promised.

Sharief had termed Justice Shah's order as 'illegal and unconstitutional' and accused the court of having taken legislation into its hands by striking down a law that had in June sailed through parliament with two-thirds majority.

The criticism by the prime minister accompanied an extensive two-day campaign against the suspension orders on Pakistan Television and Radio Pakistan through cartoons and opinion programmes.

Justice Shah has also asked for submission of the transcripts of speeches in the national assembly by the respondents, who include the chief of the state-run Pakistan Television.

UNI