A full bench of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir's High Court disqualified the region's Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas from being a member of the legislative assembly on Tuesday for contempt of court. The Court observed that Ilyas made derogatory comments against the judiciary.
The disqualification comes as a major setback to former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. In a function over the weekend, Ilyas blamed the judiciary indirectly for affecting the functioning of his government and interfering in the domain of the executive through the grant of stay orders, Dawn reported.
The decision by a full bench, led by Justice Sadaqat Hussain Raja, comes after the superior courts of the region separately served notices to Ilyas to explain his "derogatory remarks about the superior judiciary in his speeches at public meetings", Geo News reported.
Dawn reported Ilyas referred to a $15 million Saudi-funded education sector project, saying it had been in a limbo because the court had issued a stay order on the project. He had also taken strong exception to the de-sealing by the courts of tobacco factories involved in tax evasion to the tune of billions of rupees.
The Court reportedly played video clips of his speeches and asked Ilyas is he contesting them. “I place myself at the mercy of the court,” Ilyas said in Court.
Chaudhry Khalid Rasheed on Tuesday read out the judgment of the full bench, sentencing Ilyas till the rising of the court, the shortest sentence given to someone.
"Ilyas has directly threatened the superior judiciary and the language of his speech at a public meeting is highly derogatory, improper and indecently worded," according to the court order.
According to the order, since Ilyas had been 'punished by the court', he stood disqualified from being elected, from being a member of the legislative assembly and from holding any public office for two years, Dawn reported.
Commenting on the verdict, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry said that it is important to respect the decisions of the court as the country cannot run by destroying the judicial system.
Chaudhry urged Ilyas to apologise and expressed the hope that he would be given relief by the apex court. He also said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif should learn a lesson from the court's decision.
Ilyas, the current president of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, PoK chapter, was elected as the PoK "prime minister" in April last year.