With “all due respect,” Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said the court on Monday that it was not within its authority to summon top military commanders and government representatives to court in relation to a poet who had gone missing.
Judge Mohsin Akhtar Kayani of the Islamabad High Court had just moments earlier criticized security services harshly after authorities were unable to locate missing poet and journalist Ahmed Farhad Shah in Kashmir.
In addition to making harsh comments about military authorities during the case hearing, the judge threatened to call the prime minister and his cabinet if the poet was not found.
The court is a forum for delivering justice in accordance with the law; this is not its mandate.
