Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed as withdrawn contempt of court notices issued to the high courts’ judges, who had taken oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) of November 3, 2007 imposed by then president Pervez Musharraf, despite the Supreme Court’s restraining order. A four-member larger bench of Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah held that the matter of contempt was between the court and the former judges, who were no longer part of the judiciary, thus the contempt notices against them were being withdrawn.

The chief justice noted that the matter was around 11-year old and during this period Lahore High Court’s former chief justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry had passed away, adding that the events of former dictator General Pervez Musharraf’s era Supreme Court had become part of our history now.

The former judges, who were issued contempt notices included Khurshid Anwar Bhinder, Hamid Ali Shah, Zafar Iqbal Chaudhary, Hasnat Ahmad Khan, Shabir Raza Rizvi, Yasmin Abbasi, Jahanzeb Rahim and Sajjad Husain Shah. Earlier on Jan 5, the Supreme Court had dismissed the review petitions and the constitutional petitions of the high courts’ judges, who had taken oath under the PCO.

The court had dismissed the constitutional petitions of two PCO judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Shabbar Raza Rizvi and Hasnaat Ahmad Khan, whereas about 10 review pleas of some other PCO judges of the high courts, who sought pension and pensionart benefits, were disposed of after they withdrew their pleas.

The PCO judges Shabbar Raza Rizvi and Hasnaat Ahmad Khan had requested the court to review the apex court’s order of July 31, 2009 order, which sacked the PCO judges.

A seven-member Supreme Court bench headed by then CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had issued an order against the imposition of Nov 3, 2007 ‘emergency’ and directed the judges of the superior judiciary not to take oath under the PCO. Later a Supreme Court bench headed by CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry issued an order on July 31, 2009 and sacked all the judges who had taken oath under the PCO, besides issuing contempt of court notices to all the sacked judges. On September 11, 2011, a three-member Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja had held that contempt charges could be framed against the PCO judges.

Published in Daily Times, January 13^th 2018.