ISLAMABAD, Nov 8: A five-member bench of the Supreme Court stayed on Friday proceedings of a contempt trial by a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry against Defence Secretary retired Lieutenant General Asif Yasin Malik till the completion of his intracourt appeal against the trial.

The restraining order was issued after Attorney General Muneer A. Malik said he could not prosecute the secretary because he had attended a meeting after which the secretary had submitted an undertaken before the smaller bench on July 2 to hold local government elections in the areas falling under the jurisdiction of 43 cantonment boards by Sept 15.

The meeting held in the office of the AG was also attended by representatives of the Election Commission of Pakistan.The AG decided to withdraw from the proceedings when the larger bench asked him whether he was in a position to assist it. He suggested to the court to ask Additional Attorney General Shahkhawar to replace him.

The appeal will be taken up again on Nov 18.

On November 5, the smaller bench framed contempt of court charges against Mr Yasin on the ground that he had disobeyed its order by failing to hold the elections on Sept 15. The bench had invoked Section 2b of the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003 read with Article 204(3) of the Constitution to frame the charges.

`Since his reply was not satisfactory, the secretary. .

should be tried for the charge,` the smaller bench stated.

The charge was framed although Mr Yasin had filed the intra-court appeal which was taken up on Friday by thefive-judge bench headed by Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk. He has challenged the smaller bench`s decision to indict him for misleading the court by not honouring the commitment to hold the elections in the areas under cantonment boards by Sept 15.

During the proceedings, Advocate Iftikhar Gilani, who represented the secretary, told the court about a resolution adopted by the National Assembly on Thursday which had expressed concern over holding the elections in haste.

He presented a copy of the resolution before the bench and said a summary of amendments to laws about local government elections in cantonment areas was awaiting approval of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Mr Gilani spoke of repercussion for the country if a senior government functionary, a retired lieutenant general, was indicted.