The Supreme Court (SC) was gracious enough to accept the unconditional apology offered by Justice (retired) Abdul Hameed Dogar and Justice Zahid Hussain, who had been charged with contempt of court among other judges for violating the restraining order of the Supreme Court on November 3, 2007 and taking oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) after General Pervez Musharraf imposed an emergency. On February 2, in an unprecedented development, the SC had started proceedings against nine judges of the Supreme Court and various high courts after a long argument whether the constitution allowed such an action against fellow judges. In response to this, a judge of the Peshawar High Court had issued show-cause notices to all the judges of the SC bench that had started these proceedings. The SC then retrained all the non-functional judges from issuing orders and deemed them illegal.
Acceptance of the apology is a good development, which hopefully will help conclude this case dragging on since the judiciary was restored in May 2009. This case should not have been instituted in the first place because an oath under the PCO is a highly controversial matter, as the currently judiciary is an extension of judges who took oath under PCO in 2000 after General Musharraf launched a coup and illegally removed the elected government. Treating the PCOs of 2000 and 2007 differently on the plea of different circumstances is not convincing and credible. Justice (retired) Abdul Hameed Dogar, who was made chief justice of Pakistan after the removal of Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry in November 2007, was centre-stage in this whole controversy. Since what the SC considers ‘the main culprit’ has apologised, part of the controversy has been laid to rest. The trial of judges for contempt is not bringing any good to the institution of the judiciary. It has left a bad taste and will set a bad precedent of judges issuing contempt notices to judges. Perhaps it is time to let bygones be bygones. The matter should be left to the superior wisdom of the apex court to resolve this matter in a sagacious manner befitting their institution. *