The federal government has decided to challenge Supreme Court (SC) judge Justice Mansoor Ali Shah’s verdict in the contempt of court case against the apex court’s Additional Registrar Nazar Abbas.
During the hearing of the case related to the Customs Act on Tuesday, Attorney-General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan informed the constitutional bench of the SC about the government’s decision. “We have decided to file an appeal against the decision.”
The SC had on Monday disposed of the contempt of court case against the additional registrar and referred the matter of determining the powers of constitutional and regular benches to the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) for the formation of a full court. According to media reports, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, while announcing the reserved verdict, withdrew contempt proceedings against the additional registrar (judicial) for not fixing a case regarding the jurisdiction of regular benches.
The case, reserved for the judgment on January 23, centered round the additional registrar’s failure to schedule a matter regarding the jurisdiction of constitutional and regular benches, rather it was transferred to the constitutional bench for further hearing.
The case was originally heard by a two-member bench comprising Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi. During the hearing, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah noted that the bench deliberated on two questions – one about delisting cases and the other about invalidating a court order through an administrative order.
The SC judge remarked, “The court did not find any such proof that showed that the additional registrar (judicial) had any personal interest in the case.”
Noting that neither was any evidence found of any “ill-intent” of the SC official, the senior judge announced the withdrawal of the show-cause notice on the contempt of court against Abbas. The verdict said that prima facie the contempt of court proceedings should be initiated against judges committees, but the court was not issuing notices due to the court’s sanctity. The controversy arose when the additional registrar failed to fix a plea filed by the federal government concerning whether regular Supreme Court benches can rule on constitutional matters, particularly Article 191-A introduced through the 26th Amendment.