Thursday, January 5, 2012

Babar Awan receives second show cause notice in two days

Babar Awan receives second show cause notice in two days
The vice president of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) senator Babar Awan was on Thursday issued second show cause notice on contempt of court order by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The court was hearing the Bhutto reference case on Thursday when Awan, who is federation’s lawyer in the case, was reprimanded after a video was played in the courtroom in which the PPP leader was shown ridiculing show cause notice issued by SC on Wednesday.
The court then issued another show cause notice to the senator and senior PPP leader. While hearing the case, Justice Jawwad said that it was not contempt of order but insult of judiciary. In reply, Awan said that he did not intend to insult the judiciary
rather he was praising the court and its order.
The court also warned Awan of cancelling his licence. Awan has been directed to submit his reply by 9th January. After that the hearing was adjourned till January 9.
President of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Yaseen Azad and Vice Chairman of Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) Lateef Afridi also protested over Babar Awan’s reply however they requested the court to remain patient.
The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Chaudhry Iftikhar also took notice of PPP senator’s Wednesday’s statement and asked him to bring his file having the details of his license in the next hearing. CJ asserted that no one has the right to ridicule courts and their
orders adding that Awan’s behaviour was not suitable.
It is pertinent to mention that the Supreme Court had issued show cause notices to Babar Awan and several other senior leaders of PPP over the December 1 press conference to against SC’s initial hearing on contentious memo case.
The other PPP leaders who were issued show cause notices on Wednesday include Federal information minister Firdous Ashiq Awan, Farooq Awan, Khursheed Shah and former federal mister for information and broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira.