A full court bench of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) High Court on Tuesday disqualified Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for contempt of court, declaring him ineligible to hold public office.
A day earlier, the superior courts of AJK had separately served notices to Ilyas, directing him to explain his stance on “derogatory remarks about the superior judiciary in his speeches at public meetings.” The notices had directed Ilyas to separately appear before the high court and the Supreme Court.
The notices were issued over Ilyas telling a function in Islamabad that the judiciary was hampering the functioning of his government and interfering in the domain of the executive through stay orders. He has specifically cited a $15 million Saudi-funded education sector project, saying it could not be completed due to a stay order. He had also criticized the court’s de-sealing of tobacco factories involved in tax evasion.
“Prime Minister Tanveer Ilyas has directly threatened the superior judiciary and the language of his speech at a public meeting is highly derogatory, improper and indecently worded,” read the AJK High Court order, adding that his “track record” of the past several months had been “objectionable, unbecoming and improper.” It said the judges’ council of the high court had unanimously decided not to leave the matter unattended “simply by shutting eye from contemptuous and derogatory statement of the person who is at the helm of affairs.”
Prior to issuing a verdict, it said, a notice had been served to the prime minister to personally appear before the full court to explain his position.
In his appearance, Ilyas issued an unconditional apology for contempt. “I apologize unconditionally if any of my words hurt the judge,” he said. However, Justice Chaudhry Khalid Rasheed read out the judgement, sentencing the AJK premier till the rising of the court. Immediately after the verdict was announced, Ilyas—who was next supposed to appear before the AJK Supreme Court—drove straight to the Prime Minister’s House with members of the cabinet.
In a posting on Twitter, PTI leader Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said court orders should be accepted by all Pakistanis, whether they were the prime minister of Pakistan or AJK. “This country cannot be run by destroying the judicial system,” he wrote, urging Ilyas to apologize before the Supreme Court. He also hoped that the apex court would grant relief to the prime minister.