ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Saqib Nisar fined Attorney General (AG) Ashtar Ausaf Ali for failing to appear before the Supreme Court (SC) in disqualification duration case.
A five-member larger bench of the SC headed by Justice Nisar and including Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah is hearing pleas of several parliamentarians who were disqualified for possessing fake degrees under Article 62(1)(f) of the constitution.
During the case hearing, Justice Nisar questioned the Additional Attorney General (AAG) about the AG’s absence from the SC, to which the AAG said that Ausaf Ali left for Lahore to attend lawyer and human rights activist, Asma Jahangir’s funeral. CJP imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on AG for not appearing before the apex court.
AAG then told the SC that the AG would present himself before the court by 4:30pm on Monday and also asked CJP to revoke decision to fine the attorney general. Later in the day, the AAG informed the SC that AG Ashtar would not be able to appear before the court, responding to which Justice Nisar imposed a fine of Rs. 20,000.
On Thursday last week, Justice Nisar had admitted that Article 62(1)(f) of the constitution carried ‘ambiguity’ and that its interpretation was a difficult task.
The court held that it would not further hear counsels for the petitioners and directed the attorney general to advance his arguments on Monday.
The bench has to interpret Article 62(1)(f) of the constitution to determine the period of disqualification of a disqualified lawmakers.