SC is final authority: CJ

According to online newspaper pakistan ISLAMABAD: During Tuesday’s hearing of a petition on the media’s role after the Abbottabad operation, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said no one should be mistaken, adding that, the final decision lay with the Supreme Court, DawnNews reported.

A three-member bench of the apex court, led by the Chief Justice Iftikhar, heard the petition filed by Sardar Ghazi on the media’s role after the Abbottabad operation that killed Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. The petition stated that following the incident of May 2, 2011, the media played a role in discrediting the country’s judiciary and its army. In his arguments, petitioner’s counsel, Raja Irshad, said that the media had wrongly depicted Monday’s statements of the army chief and the chief justice and had given the impression that both state institutions were in conflict with one another.

 The chief justice directed the counsel to refrain from speaking on the subject, adding that, the court was “seriously considering the statements made yesterday”. During the hearing, the chief justice also sought all press releases issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) since the May 2 incident. Chief Justice Iftikhar also sought a copy of an article written by President Asif Ali Zardari which was published in the Wall Street Journal and said that the case would be heard keeping the article in perspective. 

Later, the court adjourned the hearing to Nov 22 and directed the petitioner to present all relevant records in court on the said date-Agencies