The Superior Court of Islamabad (IHC) issued Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday and other members of the Federal Cabinet for not presenting an answer in the case of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui.
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, neuroscientific and educator, was sentenced by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York for positions of attempted murder of US personnel in Afghanistan and has been fulfilling its sentence at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Carswell in the United States since 2010.
On July 12, the IHC expressed dissatisfaction with the failure of the federal government to present a report in the case on the liberation, health and repatriation of Aafia, with Judge Sardar Ejaz Ishaq that threatens to “convene the entire cabinet” if the report is not presented.
Judge Ishaq presided over a hearing for the case today. The judge said in his court order that he had warned the additional attorney general while approved his previous ruling that an additional inaction by the government would lead to the issuance of a contempt notice.
“The Government presented an appeal before the Supreme Court against my previous decision allowing amendments to the request for continuation of this case,” said the order. “For some reason, the government’s case had not been assumed by the Supreme Court.”
The judge said that since the government had not responded with the reasons despite having been ordered to do so, it disagreed, leaving it without option to issue a notice of contempt of the federal government.
“It is directed to the position to initiate a request for contempt accordingly, in which all the members of the federal government will be surveyed. The responses of all ministers, including the prime minister, will be presented within two weeks as of today,” said the order.
At the beginning of his order, the judge said: “Since the demolition squad was catapulted to this superior court after the 26th constitutional amendment, we have seen a heresy after another thrown before the Justice building, mutilating repeatedly and bringing to his last time. Roster ‘controlled by the office of the President of the Supreme Court.
Criticizing the government’s actions during the current case, he said: “The executive machinations appeared elsewhere, in the form of controlling the procedures of this court through its list.”
The judge said that he was supposed to be licensed this week, but he was informed that the list of cases would not be issued without the permission of the President of the Supreme Court, to which he submitted a request. He added that he was informed on Saturday that the president of the Supreme Court did not sign it.
“I was reported on saturday that the Application was duly moved but the fille rowed on the table of the chief justice, who did not find even 30 seconds to sign it. WHETHER THAT WAS by Design Or oversight, I CANNOT SAY FOR SURE, BUT GIVEN THE MANNER IN WHICH THE ROSTER OF JUD As a Tool for the Desired Outcome in Specific Cases, and Given The Government’s Stiff Opposition to do What is right and to stand by the daoughter of the nation at the critical junction of the motion before to US court, it can be forgiven for thinking that it was the first.
Judge Ishaq called it “another instance of the reproachable use of administrative power to chain the exercise of the independent judicial authority,” stating that the government’s response, with reasons why he would not sign the [amicus brief][4] In the case, it would probably be delayed until your license ended.
“However, the imperatives of justice will not be defeated by such minor means. To the extent that I can exercise my judicial authority until the end of defending the dignity of the Superior Court and the justice that dispenses.”
