ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar on Tuesday indirectly said that Article 204 of the Constitution should be interpreted in a way that it raises the sentence of convicts charged for contempt of court.
CJP asserted this while considering the numerous ongoing contempt of court cases. Nisar observed that Article 204 of the Constitution if interpreted independently from the contempt of court ordinance (COCO) 2003, could increase the punishment of six months to the time the accused washes out his contempt charges before the court.
Nisar made the observation during a hearing of set of appeals by former senior members of the capital’s administration and police officials charged for roughing up former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in 2007.
The Supreme Court (SC) has the authority to initiate contempt of court proceedings against individuals under Article 204 if they slander or scandalize the courts. Section 5 of COCO empowers the court to sentence the accused up to six months or impose a fine up to Rs 100,000.
The appeals as per COCO 2003 were heard on Monday, against the Novermber 1, 2007 SC order sentencing the senior administrative officials for manhandling the-then CJP Iftikhar Chaudhry. Chaudhry was alleged of misusing his position, which had to be explained to the Supreme Judicial Council but former CJP was stopped by the security officials while he was going to the Supreme Court. Earlier, the sentence was suspended on the request of the convicts who had pleaded to file appeals against their charges.
The accused include former Islamabad chief commissioner Khalid Pervaiz, Deputy Commissioner Chaudhry Mohammad Ali, former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmed and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Captain (r) Zafar Iqbal, Deputy Superintendent of police (DSP) Jamil Hashmi, Police inspector Rukhsar Mehdi and sub-inspector Mohammad Siraj.
The sentences varied from imprisonment in jail for 15 days to one month.
A ten-member bench later barred the concerned departments from taking any stern action against the appellants till their appeals were heard. On Monday, CJP Nisar directed senior counsel Sheikh Ehsan ud-Din to take former CJP’s consent if he is willing to pardon the accused from contempt.
Former CJP Chaudhry responded that he was indifferent towards the issue but the respect of the prestigious court was at stake.
Nisar, with regards to Chaudhry’s remarks, observed that the accused shall be dealt with in accordance with the law, later referring the matter to the five-judge bench for proceedings.
CJP also took a sou moto notice on the availability of police security to non-entitled individuals, ordering the police to formulate certain laws or mechanisms that would provide lawful security to the ones entitled as per the level of risk posed to their life.
Nisar had previously ordered the withdrawal of security personnel, withdrawing more than 12,600 police personnel from security. The police officials withdrawn were mainly provided to former Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif, Awami National Party (ANP) chief Asfandyar Wali and other prominent politicians.
Nisar said that the SC had never stopped the authorities from giving lawful security to former Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif.
CJP had ordered on Monday, with due consideration the complaints, that lawful security be provided.
Islamabad IGP Dr Sultan Azam Temuri informed the court that the police department had formulated a threat assessment committee comprising of police officials as well as members of intelligence agencies so threats were examined before deploying police to the security requests.