Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a set of review pleas moved by seven former senior officials of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration and police personnel convicted for roughing up former chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on March 13, 2007, in the Constitution Avenue.

Announcing its reserved verdict, a five-member larger bench comprising Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Gulzar Ahmad, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Umar Ata Bandial, dismissed all the review pleas and upheld the earlier verdict.

“We find no merit in these appeals, which are dismissed,” the 14-page judgment authored by Justice Gulzar Ahmad ruled.

The court directed that all the appellants, who were in attendance, other than those sentenced to imprisonment till rising of the court are to be taken into custody and to be lodged in central prison, Rawalpindi, to serve out their respective sentences.

In compliance with the court’s earlier order, all the appellants (contemnors) were present in the court, who were taken into custody by the police just after dismissal of their review pleas.

The court held that the appellants had not submitted their unconditional apology at the earliest stage of contempt proceedings, rather they all deferred the submission of unconditional apologies till the charges were framed against them.

It noted that when it became clear to all the appellants that the court was taking the matter seriously they tendered their unconditional apologies.

The court noted that it was not a minor matter as the conduct of the appellants had jolted and rattled the very edifice of the judicature.

“Looking at grave nature of contempt of court having been committed by the appellants, in our estimation by the impugned order passed in the suo motu proceedings, they had been dealt with quite leniency,” the court in its verdict noted.

The appeals were moved against the Nov 1, 2007 order of the Supreme Court, which had sentenced ICT administration’s senior officials and police personnel for manhandling the then CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in an attempt of preventing him from marching towards the top court to answer the allegation of misuse of office before the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).

However, soon after the announcement of the verdict, the sentence was suspended for 15 days on the request of the convicts for filing appeals.

Islamabad’s former chief commissioner Khalid Pervaiz and deputy commissioner Chaudhry Muhammad Ali were sentenced to imprisonment till rising of the court.

Whereas former inspector general of police Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmad and Senior Superintendant of Police (SSP) Capt (r) Zafar Iqbal were sentenced to 15 days. Deputy Superintendant of Police (DSP) Jamil Hashmi, now serving as Motorways SSP, inspector Rukhsar Mehdi, who is now DSP, and Assistant Sub-inspector (ASI) Muhammad Siraj were awarded one-month imprisonment.

Later, a 10-member larger bench of the top court had barred the respective departments from taking any adverse action against the appellants till pendency of their appeals.

The counsels for other appellants had requested the court to pardon their clients as they had tendered unconditional apology and left themselves at the mercy of the court. The court, however, had noted that manhandling of the chief justice was witnessed across the globe.

Justice Khosa had had observed that it was an unforgiving offence to breach the dignity of a judge. He had noted that misbehaviour with judges could not be tolerated at any cost. He also had noted that how manhandling of a judge could be tolerated when the constitution does not allow violating the self-esteem of even a common man.

Justice Gulzar Ahmad had observed that manhandling of the then chief justice was not a pardonable offence.

The ICT administration and police personnel on March 13, 2007, had roughed up then CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry when he refused to ride an official car and attempted to march towards the Supreme Court to attend the proceedings of presidential reference against him before the SJC.

It might be recalled here that during last hearing of the case, Raja Muhammad Ibrahim Satti, counsel for one of the appellants, had demanded the apex court to also take a similar action against those who detained the former CJP Chaudhry for hours on March 9, 2007 in Rawalpindi.

He also had produced before the court the affidavit of Justice Chaudhry he had furnished before the SJC along with his original petition against former military ruler Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf.

The affidavit narrated the ordeal that how four top serving army officers forced and pressured him (Justice Chaudhry) into resigning at the then president’s camp office in Rawalpindi, but allowed him to leave later in a flagless car after keeping him confined for over five hours.

Referring to the affidavit, the counsel had pleaded the court to also initiate a stern legal action against those who misbehaved with the former CJP.

He had argued that the top army officers had also pressured Justice Chaudhry to resign, thus they also deserved strict legal action like that of the police officers and others.

Published in Daily Times, June 7^th 2018.