We have all heard this breaking news that Raja Pervez Ashraf has been issued a contempt of court notice by the Supreme Court. On the face of it, it just looks like a typical legal case where a Supreme Court chief judge issued a contempt of court notice to a former prime minister. However, there is more to it than meets the eye. This story is not as dry as it feels.
Pervez Ashraf had requested Supreme Court that a commission headed by Dr. Shoaib Saddal be formed to investigate the graft cases against him. Visibly, this move showed the seriousness and genuineness of the ex prime minister. It showed that how seriously he wanted his name to be cleared from these cases. In reality, this move was full of cunning ulterior motives.
The formation of the commission that Mr. Ashraf asked for, was to be headed by none other than Dr. Shoaib Saddal. It should be reminded that Dr. Saddal is the same person who headed a commission formed to investigate graft cases against Arsalan Iftikhar, the son of the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Pervez Ashraf tried to checkmate Iftikhar Chaudhry by asking him to form the same commission that was formed for Arsalan Iftikhar case.
This brilliant idea was to achieve three distinct goals at once. First, it would put chief justice under tremendous pressure because he would not be able to refuse this offer, as when it came to his own son the same commission was formed. So chief justice can not bring forward the issue of integrity of the commission or point out any other problem in it. Secondly, as we all know, the Shoab Saddal commission did nothing with Arsalan Iftikhar case. All it did was to lurch the issue in an abyss so much that all the attention towards this case got diverted to somewhere else. We don’t even remember that case now. Hence, forming a Shoab Saddal commission would have favoured Mr. Ashraf in same way. Thirdly and most importantly, Pervez Ashraf would have gone to the next general elections with high moral grounds. He would have atleast something, again, to try to befool the masses and get votes from them. However, he had not contemplated the whole scenarios.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhy understood the game plan of Mr. Ashraf very well. He knew that Mr. Ashraf was trying to checkmate him. The move played by Mr. was without a doubt a tricky one. However, chief justice did the unthinkable. He not only got out of that difficult situation but he played back an aggressive and even more trickier move from which Raja saab is unlikely to recover. Infact, Raja saab has been technically knocked out. Chief justice did not even go ahead to consider the request of formation of the Saddal commission. He objected to the very letter that was written. It was termed as an effort to influence decisions in Raja Saab’s favour. Hence, now Mr. Pervez Ashraf has two weeks to appear before the court in a new case, a contempt of court case. That’s a perfect TKO!
