Editor-in-chief of the Weekly Pulse has filed a complaint under Article 209 against Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, who charged the magazine with contempt of court while heading a Special Bench of the apex court.
Mohsin Jamil Baig has furnished his complaint against the learned judge directly before the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) and also through the president of Pakistan.
Sources in the Presidency said President Asif Ali Zardari had assured Baig to forward his complaint to the Supreme Judicial Council in due course of time.
According to the details of the complaint, “With due respect to the learned judge and without attempting to ridicule or scandalise him in the least, the applicant genuinely believes that the contempt proceedings being conducted by the judge have been pre-empted by him to an extent that there is almost a nil chance of applicant proving his innocence if the case is continued to be heard by him.”
Therefore, “appropriate action including voluntary recusal of the learned judge from the bench is, inter alia, sought on the following grounds”.
The applicant has cited as many as five grounds to his complaint against the learned judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. One of the grounds providing basis for the complaint against the judge under Article 209 claims that the learned Judge “pressurised him to change his counsel”.
Paramount ground for complaint against learned judge was the utterance of his own words in the open court.
“Mr Justice Khawaja has expressed himself in categorical terms in open court and in the presence of dozens of media persons of established repute that the so-called counterfeit email address of Supreme Court used to deter a UK firm from making a statement against Dr Arslan Iftikhar in another pending contempt proceedings against Malik Riaz (former Chairman of Bahria Town) are ascribable to the applicant and that there is no doubt about the fact.”
