Former Chief Justice of Pakistan Jawad S Khawaja has filed a contempt petition for the Supreme Court against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for not having completed the Pointed Court 7 May in the military court case.
The petition says that the Pointing Court had ordered the federal government to amend the law or legislation within 45 days to give civilians convicted by military courts the right to appeal to a Supreme Court. According to Khawaja, the government has not complied with the order.
“This is a straightforward case. The Supreme Court gave a direction to the federal government to make the necessary changes/legislation to give an independent appeal to High Court from decisions in Court Martial Proceedings within 45 days. This direction has not been complied with,” the petition reads.
It also claims that the federal government has obeyed a binding ruling from the Court and that the Prime Minister as the respondent is responsible for this failure.
“In the event of a violation of fundamental rights, the overall courts are authorized to issue direction to the federal government or provincial governments to bring the law in accordance with fundamental rights and/or enforce law and questions of notification in this regard,” the petition states.
It adds that even the legislation and the director can be corrected to take legislative measures to bring laws in accordance with fundamental rights.
The original Supreme Court’s decision maintained previous judgments and instructed the federal government to legislate on the right to appeal to the conviction of military court and call it necessary to enforce constitutional protection.
