Language of ‘our’ Law Minister

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Minister: Law Minister Mr. Wasi Zafar
Courtesy: Voice of America
Program: Round Table
Language: Urdu

Size: roughly 10 MB

Wasi Zafar is Law Minister of Pakistan -  whose licence has been cancelled.

Federal Law Minister Wasi Zafar repeatedly hurled naked abuse in a live Voice of America (VoA) radio discussion on chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s deposition, which was heard worldwide on Monday night.

There were three participants in the telephonic discussion — Wasi Zafar, constitutional expert Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan and Ansar Abbasi, Editor Investigations, The News, Islamabad.

Ansar joined the talk a bit late and said he fears to say anything because of Wasi Zafar’s peculiar temperament and track record. As he uttered these remarks, the law minister came in and said whoever gives him a “big arm”, he would do the same to his family.

As Wasi Zafar heard Ansar joining the programme, he lost his cool and started hurling abuse. He was angered because of a story headlined “Law minister facing long arm of the law” that Ansar had filed and was published in The News on August 13, 2005. It said the prime minister and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain would decide the fate of the law minister for his son’s thrashing of a PIA passenger in his presence at the Karachi airport.

Earlier in the programme, Aitzaz Ahsan had also threatened to break off due to the foul language of the law minister. But he was persuaded by the host to continue. Ansar regretted the repetition of the abuse by Wasi Zafar and said the world was listening to the kind of language the minister was using.

A caller from Pishin, Naeem Taseer, also wondered what question should be asked from this kind of a minister. Later, Wasi Zafar vehemently denied on Geo that he hurled any abuse on the VoA programme. However, the audio played by the TV network gave a lie to his assertion.

The minister again poured his anger on Ansar, saying he was corrupt and a blackmailer, who gets money for his stories. In the same programme, Ansar said there was a serious problem in the minister’s personality. He said the high-ups should take notice of such buffoons who are bringing a bad name to Pakistan.

The other day, the Jaranwala Bar Association cancelled Wasi Zafar’s basic membership and recommended to the Pakistan Bar Council that his licence should be revoked. Wasi Zafar earned notoriety when he threatened a chairman of the Capital Development Authority, who had refused to give a concession to him regarding an industrial plot. He and his sons had also thrashed a person at the Karachi airport in 2005, who objected to the minister’s sons jumping the queue. Later, he slapped a waiter of a five-star hotel in Islamabad over a trivial matter

News text courtesy: The News International

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This is ridiculous, pathetic & pitiable for the country whose Law Minister is using such language while program is live & on air. He is caught saying “Big Arm in the family of that person…”

Contents rated R, 21+ for strong language.

Text of Chief Justice’s statement to SJC

 Following is the full text of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhamamd Chuadhry’s reply to the charges against him brought before the Supreme Judicial Council.

“Reference before the Supreme Judicial Council (constituted against the provisions of Article 209 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan) (Application for obtaining copies of documents/evidence and raising objection on the constitutionality of the SJC)

The above noted reference came up for hearing on March 9, 2007 after 6pm in indecent haste, as is evident from news published in daily Nawa-i-Waqt dated March 10, 2007, where it has been published that the chief justices of Lahore and Karachi were brought to Islamabad in a special flight.

The SJC, on having gone through the record, passed an order detrimental against my interest and against the interests of the institution whereby I have been restrained to work as a Supreme Court judge and chief justice of Pakistan. Such powers are not available at all to a fact finding inquiry commission/council as such powers are available to courts and my understanding of the Constitution under Article 209 is that no such powers are available to the council as it is not in exercise the power of the court.

Be that as it may, by passing the restraining order, the council, as well as the earlier order notified in notification no 529/(2)/2007 issued by the president of Pakistan, which is equally contrary to the Constitution, I have suffered as under:

[I have been] detained for all intents and purposes with my family members including my infant child of seven years from the evening of March 9, 2007, up till now. My official residence is besieged by heavy contingents comprising police and members of other agencies, for which there is no justification.