Gilani's intra-court appeal also in contempt of court, says CJ

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, heading the eight-member hearing Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s intra-court appeal on Thursday, remarked that the appeal itself was in contempt of the court.

Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, representing Prime Minister Gilani in his contempt of court case, appeared before Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry nearly after five years.

During the hearing, Justice Saqib Nisar directed Ahsan to remove ‘objectionable’ paragraphs from his appeal.

The chief justice questioned Ahsan on how he could include paragraphs in his appeal which say that the contempt case cannot be initiated against a prime minister who helped in restoring the judges.

Ahsan, in reply, said that even if a contempt case was initiated against him, keeping in view his struggles for the restoration of the judges, he would have taken the same stance.

However, three objectionable points from the intra-court appeal were removed on the court’s insistence.

The eight-judge bench appeared intransigent that the government must respond to its request in December 2009 to re-open corruption cases.

President Asif Ali Zardari and his late wife, prime minister Benazir Bhutto, were suspected of using Swiss bank accounts to launder about $12 million in alleged bribes paid by companies seeking customs inspection contracts in Pakistan in the 1990s.

The chief justice insisted the prime minister should have taken the initiative in re-opening those cases. The court said it had shown patience in the two years and three months since it ordered that the matter be taken up with the Swiss.

Ahsan pointed out that the Swiss authorities had themselves closed the cases in 2008, when Zardari took office, on the grounds of immunity, and that there was no third party to claim the funds.

“The prime minister should not be the person to undermine any institution. This money will not come to our pockets. Actually it is the nation which wants this money,” the chief justice said.

The bench was formed on Wednesday after Ahsan filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against its order of filing charges against the prime minister.

None of the seven judges, who had summoned the prime minister on February 13 for the framing of charges, are part of the bench hearing appeal against their order.

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Pakistan al Qaeda chief killed by US drone: Officials

MIRANSHAH: US missiles on Thursday killed al Qaeda’s chief in Pakistan, one of the Americans’ main targets and wanted for attacks that killed scores of people, officials said.

Badr Mansoor, who reputedly sent fighters to Afghanistan and ran a training camp in North Waziristan, was killed in a pre-dawn drone strike on a compound near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials and a member of his group told AFP.

“He died in the missile attacks overnight in Miranshah. His death is a major blow to al Qaeda’s abilities to strike in Pakistan,” a senior Pakistani official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

His death was confirmed by one of his loyalists.

“Badr Mansoor was killed in the missile attack,” a militant among his group confirmed by telephone.

Intelligence officials in North Waziristan said Mansoor had been killed, but other Pakistani officials were divided.

“We’re not sure. We cannot give confirmation just like that,” one of them told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A US drone attack had targeted a militant compound killed four insurgents in North Waziristan, early morning on Thursday, security officials had said.

Two missiles hit the compound located in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, near the Afghan border, a security official had said.

“A US drone fired two missiles at a compound used by militants in Miranshah and four militants have been killed.”

The incident and death toll were confirmed by intelligence sources.

“Taliban fighters had started hiding here in rented buildings and those killed are believed to be militants,” one official said, requesting anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Officials said the death toll could rise because of damage to buildings next to the one targeted by the drone.

This strike followed a drone attack, earlier, on Wednesday on a compound in Tappi, 10 kilometres (six miles) southeast of Miranshah, which security officials said killed 10 insurgents.

Several militant groups, including the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda, have a presence in Pakistan’s border tribal regions, taking advantage of a porous border with Afghanistan to conduct cross-border attacks, or plot violence elsewhere.

North Waziristan is also an important base for the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, an Afghan militant faction allied with the Taliban.

While the Haqqanis say they no longer need havens in North Waziristan and stay in Afghanistan, they are known to still maintain a presence in the Pakistani border region.

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Memogate: Commission laments wastage of time due to Ijaz's absence

ISLAMABAD: Justice Qazi Faez Essa, during the Memogate hearing in the Islamabad High Court on Thursday, said that if it was told earlier that Mansoor Ijaz will not be coming to Pakistan, then it would have not only saved time but also resolved the case.

The judicial commission probing the Memogate scandal resumed the hearing today.

Ijaz’s counsel Akram Sheikh said that he was appearing before the court “voluntarily” and that the court, according to Pakistani laws, does not hold the authority to summon Ijaz.

He said that if Ijaz comes to Pakistan, the Parliamentary Committee on National Security would also summon him, in reply to which Justice Essa said, “Now you are taking a U-turn.”

Justice Essa added that earlier, security was being made an issue and now the parliamentary committee.

Sheikh prayed to the court that the location for recording Ijaz’s statement be changed to Zurich or London from Dubai. Justice Essa questioned that what is the guarantee that if the court’s representatives go abroad, Ijaz will have his statement recorded.

Ijaz has been summoned by the parliamentary and judicial commissions investigating the case, and has twice refused to come to Pakistan despite assurances of proper security.

In the request, Sheikh had said that Ijaz has a security threat if he comes to Pakistan and there is also the danger that he might be arrested on false charges or evidence might be taken away from him.

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Posted in: NATIONAL