A Full Bench of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) High Court disqualified Sardar Tanveer Ilyas on Tuesday from his position as a Member of the Legislative Assembly and as the Prime Minister on contempt charges. Tanveer Ilyas reportedly had accused the judiciary of affecting the working of his government and intervening in the domain of the executive through stay orders. He had 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.
Firstly, nobody is above the law and it is really important the orders of the courts are respected by all and sundry including the executive. Especially when the top leadership will start ridiculing the judiciary, then the people will also lose confidence in this most important institution. Rather the effort of leadership should be to strengthen the hands of judiciary so that it could dispense speedy justice to the litigants. Having said so, we also accept the right of fair comment on the court’s judgments but whilst doing so the choice of words is very important and these must not be in offensive in nature. The AJK Prime Minister might have some genuine concerns over the stay orders on some important projects but instead of severely criticizing the judiciary in public, he being the chief executive of the territory should have approached the court through the counsels to get the stay orders vacated. It has also been seen that the judiciary exercises maximum restraint on contempt matters and as Tanveer Ilyas has approached the AJK’s Supreme Court, we expect that it will take a more compassionate view and accept the apology of Tanveer. Already there is a tense political environment in the country due to the crisis relating to elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and this matter should not be allowed to add further fuel to it.
