Ijaz Kakakhel Islamabad
Justice Athar Minallah, the only judge who gave a dissenting note in the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s 4:1 ruling against live-streaming the proceedings of the National Accountability Bureau law amendments case has said that the apex court’s approach towards the treatment of elected representatives has been “ unflattering.”
The top court judge, in his 13-page long dissenting note released on Wednesday, stated that the approach of the Court should be “in favour of the millions of followers and their representatives”.
Referring to the “grave wrong done” in denying an elected Prime Minister, ZulfiKar Ali Bhutto, the right to a fair trial, he maintained that the “damage done by the court was irretrievable.”
“The perception of the existence of a coercive apparatus of the State cannot be ignored by a constitutional court, particularly having regard to the unjustified treatment of representatives of the people in the past. The perception of complicity of this Court in or by allowing the elected representatives to be humiliated, harassed, and persecuted for other than bona fide reasons is not unfounded,” says Justice Minallah in his minority opinion.
The judge said that Imran Khan, like other former elected prime ministers, has millions of followers across the country, as has become “evident from the results of the last general elections.” “He is definitely not an ordinary prisoner or convict.” “The public has a fundamental right under Article 19-A of the Constitution to have access to information in its original jurisdiction under Article 184(3) of the Constitution,” read the note.
The apex court judge referred to the right conferred by Article 19-A of the Constitution, saying that it “is operative and justiciable.” “Cases heard by this Court on its original jurisdiction under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, including review petitions and other matters arising therein, are matters of public importance within the meaning and scope of that expression used in Article 19-A of the Constitution.” On June 1, the apex court bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa and including Justices Aminuddin Khan, Athar Minallah, Jamal Khan Mandokhail, and Hasan Azhar Rizvi.
