The Supreme Court (SC) will indict National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Admiral (r) Fasih Bokhari in a contempt of court case on April 2.
A three-member bench of the SC, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, resumed the hearing into the case on Wednesday and ordered Bukhari’s indictment.
During the proceedings, NAB chief’s counsel Naveed Rasul Mirza requested the SC to shift the case to some other bench, which the SC denied.
Referring to the Contempt of Court Ordinance, Mirza argued that a judge could not hear the contempt case against any individual who had registered a complaint against him. He submitted that if the chief justice continued hearing the case, it would give a negative impression.
The SC had issued a show cause notice under Article 204 of the constitution read with Section 3 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003 to the NAB chairman for writing a strongly-worded letter criticising the judiciary to President Asif Ali Zardari.
During the proceedings, the counsel for the NAB chief also read out the context of the letter.
“In the January 27 letter to the president, Admiral Bokhari described how the superior judiciary, through its notices and verbal and written orders, had attempted to undermine the constitutional position of the bureau.”
On this, the chief justice remarked that every angle would be looked into when and if someone pointed a finger at the judiciary’s dignity and superiority.
Justice Gulzar said the NAB chairman’s letter was not written against a single judge, but the Supreme Court was targeted.
Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed told Mirza that the name of the Supreme Court was mentioned 10 times in the letter. “It means that the whole judiciary was criticised by the NAB chairman.”
Chief Justice Chaudhry said issuing a notice to the NAB chairman was nothing out of the ordinary, adding that the former and present prime ministers had also appeared before the SC.
