By Asif Mehmood
Danial Aziz is sentenced by the Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan. He was found guilty for contempt of court. The court sentenced him till the rising of the court. It means the duration of his sentence was not more than 1 or 2 minutes or even less than that. But the consequences are not that simple. A convict is a convict whether for a term of 6 months or for just one or two minutes. The term of the sentence doesn’t matter here. What matters is whether one is convicted or not. And Danial Aziz is convicted.
What does a conviction is contempt case means for a politician? The Constitution provides the answer to this question. Article 63 (a) and (g) discuss this situation as under:
Article 63:- Disqualifications for membership of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament):
(1) A person shall be disqualified from being elected or chosen as, and from being, a member of the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament), if:-
(g) He has been convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction for propagating any opinion, or acting in any manner, prejudicial to the ideology of Pakistan, or the sovereignty, integrity or security of Pakistan, or morality, or the maintenance of public order, or the integrity or independence of the judiciary of Pakistan, or which defames or brings into ridicule the judiciary or the Armed Forces of Pakistan, unless a period of five years has elapsed since his release.”
So now Danial Aziz is a convicted person and he is disqualified to be the member of the parliament for five years. Yusuf Raza Gilani was also convicted for contempt of court and if memory serves better he was sentenced just for thirty seconds.
So is there any other servant of the political masters ready for bad mouthing?