CJ’s ‘constant but concealed’ involvement questioned in PHC

A contempt case instituted in July under written instructions of Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Tuesday raised a serious question before the Peshawar High Court about the top judge’s conduct.
A writ petition filed in the PHC by Shahid Orakzai questioned the “constant but concealed involvement” of CJ in matters pending against his son.
The petitioner provided a document of the apex court’s administration branch signed by the chief justice as preliminary evidence to the question raised in the petition. The PHC was informed that on June 7, Justice Chaudhry formally rescued himself from a full bench hearing a suo motu case involving his son and the ostensible purpose of his withdrawal was to allow the Supreme Court to do “complete justice” between the parties and “deny his son any undue advantage of his relationship with any judge of court”. Petitioner Shahid Orakzai said in response to an objection by the attorney general, the chief justice had a day earlier assured that the question of his presence on the bench would be ruled “in the light of the injunctions of the Holy Quran and Sunnah as well as precedent case laws on the subject”.
However, much to the contrary, the chief justice instructed the SC registrar on July 26 to instantly register a contempt case against an English weekly of the capital for printing some sensitive evidentiary material about the dispute involving his son. The chief justice insisted that the case shall “be fixed today” and before the very “same bench” which was then hearing a review petition of his son. The brief note of the chief justice, reproduced in the petition, reflects his worries: “8. A perusal of note put up by the office prima facie suggests that the matter requires to be dealt with on judicial side for initiating proceedings of contempt of court against all concerned, as such it may be registered as a Contempt Petition and be fixed today before the same Bench”, the CJ noted. The above note is an “irrefutable evidence” of his “constant but concealed involvement and understandable interest” in the matters pending against his son, noted the petition. By initiating a new criminal case against the magazine, the chief justice “seems to be indirectly pressurising and penalising all those who may give any evidence against his son. And in this process, two judges of the Supreme Court are being unnecessarily maligned”, the petitioner said.
Orakzai said action taken by the CJ in his chamber had exposed his commitment to “Holy Quran and Sunnah”. The court was told that the Quran did not insist that a judge must abstain from deciding any case involving his family members and per the Holy Quran, a judge who withdrew from such a case was even unfit to be a witness, the petitioner asserted.
The petitioner pointed out that while the withdrawal of the CJ was based on the prevalent judicial practice or his own view of the constitution, the constitution did not insist so. By initiating a contempt case against two people who might hold some evidence against his son, the chief justice of Pakistan has negated the oath he made before President General Pervez Musharraf.