The full court bench of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) High Court on Tuesday disqualified Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas from being a member of the legislative assembly for contempt. On Monday, the superior courts of AJK had separately served notices Ilyas to explain his position with regard to his “derogatory remarks about the superior judiciary in his speeches at public meetings”.

The notices, served through his principal secretary, asked Ilyas to separately appear before the high court and the Supreme Court on Tuesday. At a function in Islamabad over the weekend, Ilyas had indirectly blamed the judiciary for affecting the functioning of his government and interfering in the domain of the executive through the grant of stay orders.

On Tuesday, Justice Chaudhry Khalid Rasheed read out the judgement of the AJK High Court full bench, sentencing the AJK premier till the rising of the court. After the verdict was announced, Ilyas — who was supposed to appear before the AJK apex court drove straight to the Prime Minister’s House along with members of the cabinet.

Producing the clipping of the premier’s speech in its order, the AJK court said that the matter was discussed in a meeting of the judges’ council “in view of its seriousness” and it was unanimously decided “it could not be overlooked because the dignity and authority of the courts was on stake and nobody could be allowed to undermine it”.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP