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committed any illegal acts, including Malik Riaz, his son-in-law Salman Ahmed
Khan and Dr Arsalan Iftikhar, are pursued and (they are) brought to book with
the full force and rigours of the law,” the court said.
Justice Khilji Arif Husain added a brief note in which he said, “Although
family members of public functionaries are not performing state functions,
the alleged facts of this case highlight the necessity of extreme caution and
discretion in their private and public dealings and conduct.”
The court said the objective of suo motu action in this case was not to
pronounce a final judgment on the guilt or innocence of the persons involved,
the intention was to take cognizance of the matter so that the people’s right to
have access to information about matters of public importance could be
vindicated.
“The matter of public importance in this case was the aspersion cast on
the independence and integrity of the superior judiciary,” the court said.
Kalabagh Dam
The judiciary took a fling at the long-deferred and controversial Kalabagh
Dam project when the LHC directed the federal government to implement, in
letter and spirit, the decisions of the Council of Common Interests (CC1)
about the construction of the dam at Kalabagh.
The direction was issued by the LHC CJ after hearing nine petitions seeking
orders for the construction of the Kalabagh Dam.
The CCI had approved the construction of the dam in 1991 and in 1998 it
had decided to prepare a strategy for securing finances and technical assistance
for the project.
In his short order Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial argued that the energy
shortage had adversely affected the lives of citizens and violated their
fundamental rights as guaranteed in Articles 9 and 25 of the constitution. The
government was therefore directed that, in the performance of its duties under
Article 154 of the constitution it shall take steps to implement the CCI decisions
of 1991 and 1998.
Contempt cases
Apart from Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani who was convicted for contempt, a
number of politicians and bureaucrats were hauled up by the Supreme Court
under the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003. But the matter that became
something of a cause celebre concerned former law minister Babar Awan.
He had been indicted for contempt in the last days of 2001 for mocking
the SC and casting aspersions on one of its judges and his family. At the
beginning he had pleaded ‘not guilty’ and argued, along with the Attorney-
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State of Human Rights in 2012