ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its verdict on whether it could initiate contempt proceedings against PCO judges and the army generals involved in the promulgation of November 3, 2007 emergency in the country in defiance of a seven-member Supreme Court bench’s restraining order.
The court also reserved its decision on employing the assistance of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and presidents of provincial bar associations in contempt proceedings against the PCO judges. A four-member bench of Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez was hearing contempt of court cases against the superior courts judges who had taken oath under the PCO in violation of an SC order.
During the hearing, Justice Khawaja observed that before a verdict was issued, it had to be decided whether contempt notices could be served to the PCO judges and the army generals. On this, Dr Abdul Basit, counsel for Justice Hasnat Ahmed Khan, asked the court to adjourn the hearing until the decision on the issue was taken. He said the hearing of the contempt case showed that the court was only targeting the judges and not taking any action against the generals.
Basit also filed an application under Order 37 Rule 4 and 5 of Supreme Court Rules 1980, that the Supreme Court Bar Association president, the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) vice-chairman, the PBC executive committee chairman, the presidents of all high court bar associations, the vice-chairmen of all provincial bar councils and the Lahore Bar Association president be summoned to assist the court as amicus curiae and the submissions of amicus curiae be taken into consideration while deciding the PCO judges’ case.
He said that all members of the bar across Pakistan are vital stakeholders, therefore they need to be associated with these proceedings that whether or not a number of sitting judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts are liable to be tried for contempt of court on the allegations that they have willfully disobeyed November 3, 2007, restraining order by taking oath under PCO. The lawyers fro the PCO judges, including Dr Basit, Ibrahim Satti, Waseem Sajjad and SM Zafar, argued that the judges were exempted from contempt proceedings.
After hearing them, the court reserved its judgement.
