PM not answerable to any court for exercise of powers, official functions: Attorney General

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Attorney General for Pakistan Irfan Qadir Friday said that under Article 248 (1) of the Constitution, the Prime Minister was not answerable to any court for the exercise of powers and official functioning of his office. The Attorney General said this while talking to mediamen in his office in the Supreme Court. Responding to a question about the appearance of the Prime Minister before the Apex Court on the forthcoming hearing of the National Reconciliation Order (NRO) implementation case fixed for August 27, the Attorney General said, "I don't know about and this will be the decision of the Prime Minister purely". To another question that "If the Prime Minister does not appear before the court on August 27, then what are you expecting from the court, he said, "This question has no sense as these are hypothetical questions and I don't comment on such questions relying on ifs and buts." It may be mentioned here that a five-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa will hear the NRO implementation case on August 27 and the Prime Minister had already been issued notice by the bench to appear before the court in person on the said date. Justice Ijaz Afzal Khan, Justice Ejaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Muhammad Athar Saeed are members of the bench. It is pertinent to mention here that "The Article 248 says, "Protection to President, Governor, Minister, etc. (1) The President, a Governor, the Prime Minister, a Federal Minister, a Minister of State, the Chief Minister and a Provincial Minister shall not be answerable to any court for the exercise of powers and performance of functions of their respective offices or for any act done or purported to be done in the exercise of those powers and performance of those functions:"