Sharif faces contempt case over English speech at UN

Islamabad: A citizen has filed in the Supreme Court a petition seeking a contempt case against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for delivering his speech at the 70th UN General Assembly session in English, according to local media reports.

A decision on whether to hear the petition is yet to be taken by the court.

Zahid Ghani, the petitioner, reportedly contends that the prime minister had flouted the September 8 Supreme Court verdict which directed the federal and provincial governments to use, without any delay, Urdu for official and other purposes.

He said the leaders of other states, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had addressed the same UN meeting in their national languages.

Prime Minister Sharif, the petition said, had committed an offence and, therefore, should be prosecuted under Article 204 of the Constitution read with Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003.

In its petition, Zahid Ghani argued that since Prime Minister Sharif knew about the September 8 judgement, the apex court should order his disqualification as member of the National Assembly under Articles 62 and 63 (1g) of the Constitution.

The petitioner also annexed with his petition the September 8 judgement in which former chief justice Jawwad S. Khawaja acknowledged the contentions raised before the court that the governments were deliberately not implementing Article 251 of the Constitution which asked for making arrangements to implement Urdu for official and other purposes within 15 years of commencement of the constitution.

The verdict also asked the governments to consider and implement the three-month timeline, given by the government itself in a July 6, 2015, letter to all government departments, and directed the federal and the provincial governments to coordinate with each other for uniformity in the ‘rasmulkhat’, or font style of the national language.

In addition, federal and provincial laws will also be translated into the national language within three months, as suggested by the government in the July 6 letter; whereas statutory, regulatory and oversight bodies will take steps to implement Article 251 without delay and ensure compliance.

The verdict also asked the governments to introduce the language in competitive examinations at the federal level.

Judgments in cases relating to public interest litigation or those judgements enunciating a principle of law in terms of Article 189 must also be translated into Urdu and published in line with Article 251 of the Constitution.