Contempt plea filed against govt for not using Urdu as official language
ISLAMABAD: A lawyer on whose petition the Supreme Court handed down a judgement requiring the federal and provincial governments to use Urdu as official language has now complained that the federal government was not implementing the apex court’s Sept 8 judgement.
Thus, on Tuesday a contempt of court petition was moved by Advocate Mohammad Kokab Iqbal in person under Article 204 of the Constitution with a plea that the federal government has so far failed to produce any report signifying that the Sept 8 verdict had been fulfilled by implementing the same.
Written in Urdu language, the one-page contempt of court petition argued that Prime Minister Nawaz Shreef did constitute a committee comprising Information Minister Pervez Rasheed, Minister for Human Rights Barrister Zafarullah Khan and Special Adviser to the PM Irfan Siddiqui, but till date no solid or visible steps had been taken in compliance with the judgement.
The petitioner alleged that heads of different government departments were of the opinion that the directions of apex court could not be implemented until government high-ups issued orders in writing for it.
He said despite orders of the Supreme Court the chief executive of the country had been speaking in English at different forums, adding that even representatives of Islamabad local government had taken oath in English when most of them were unaware of any English vocabulary.
The petition stated that competitive exams were not being conducted in Urdu, in violation of the order, due to which children of common citizen remained unsuccessful while superiority of English has been enslaving the nation.
It argued that judgements of public interest were not being translated in Urdu, adding that the government departments were not presenting their points of view in different cases in the national language.
Advocate Kokab Iqbal through his petition asked the court to take stern action against the government in accordance with the law of the contempt of court.
Pervez Rasheed, Barrister Zafarullah Khan, Irfan Siddiqui, Secretary Cabinet Division Raja Hassan Abbas and Secretary Establishment Division Nadeem Hassan Asif have been made respondents in the contempt case.
On Nov 6, the Punjab government had requested the Supreme Court through a review petition to revise its judgement only to the extent where the verdict obligates the respective governments to translate all the available laws from English to Urdu within three months.
In its Sept 8 judgement, the Supreme Court had asked the governments to consider and implement within three-month time implementation of the Urdu language in the competitive examinations at the federal level, besides judgements in cases relating to public interest litigation and judgements enunciating a principle of law in terms of Article 189 must be translated in Urdu and should be published in line with Article 251 of the Constitution.
Similarly, in the court cases, the government departments should make all reasonable efforts to submit their replies in Urdu to enable citizens to effectively enforce their legal rights.
If subsequent to this judgement, any public bodies or public officials continue to violate the constitutional command contained in Article 251, citizens who suffer a tangible loss directly and foreseeably resulting from such violation shall be entitled to enforce any civil rights which may accrue to them on this account, the judgement had stated.
Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2015