LAHORE – A General House meeting of the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) on Friday condemned the contempt of court notice issued by a dysfunctional judge of the Peshawar High Court to four judges of the Supreme Court bench hearing contempt proceedings against PCO judges.
The LHCBA also demanded the government not hand over Raymond Davis, a US national accused of murdering two Pakistani youth, to his home country, saying Davis should be punished for his crime according to the Pakistani law. The House passed two resolutions in this regard. In this first resolution, the LHCBA demanded that the motives behind the contempt notice issued by Justice Jahanzeb Rahim be investigated and made public.
The second resolution was regarding the Davis issue. Speakers including Babar Murtaza, Allah Buksh Gondal, Muhammad Rafiq Rajwana, Raja Zulqurnain, Ahmad Awais and MNA Naseer Ahmad Bhutta said it was unbelievable that a deposed PCO judge of PHC would issue contempt notice to sitting SC judges to seek their appearance as accused. They said the deposed judge could not use the judicial platform and Justice Rahim had tried to ridicule the whole judicial system by this action.
They claimed that conspiracies were being hatched against the judiciary since it took action against the corrupt and was making efforts to recover the nation’s looted money. “It appears a new game is on against the judiciary,” they said, demanding a probe into the matter. LHCBA President Abdul Qaddus said, “The Bar will not tolerate any step taken to undermine respect or authority of the judiciary.”
Justice Jehanzaib Rahim, a dysfunctional judge of the PHC, on Thursday had issued a show-cause notice to the larger bench of the SC, scheduled to hear contempt proceedings against eight PCO judges, including him on February 21, to appear before his court also on February 21, to explain the grounds for serving him contempt of court notice.
