ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court will resume the hearing on intra-court appeals of the superior courts’ judges today (Monday), who had taken oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) in violation of the apex court’s November 3, 2007 restraining order.
A seven-member special bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Justice Amir Hani Muslim will resume the hearing after 17 days. In the last hearing, former chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar had thrown himself at the mercy of the Supreme Court and had apologized for taking oath under the PCO promulgated by former president Pervez Musharraf in 2007.
Besides, Justice Syed Zahid Hussain of the Supreme Court, one of the nine judges facing contempt of court charges had said he had decided to resign his from nominal office. The last hearing had taken an abrupt turn when Justice Sayed Zahid Hussain, a sitting but non-functional judge, resigned from his office and Justice (r) Hameed Dogar said he had come to apologize.
Justice (r) Dogar, Justice Sayed Zahid Hussain of the Supreme Court, former LHC chief justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry and justices Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi, Hasnat Ahmed Khan, Syed Hamid Ali Shah and Syed Sajjad Hussain Shah of the Lahore High Court, Ms Yasmeen Abbasey of the Sindh High Court and Jehanzeb Rahim of the Peshawar High Court are to be tried for contempt by another four-judge bench of the apex court.
The court had questioned the legal status of PCO judges, asking if they could be referred to as ‘justice’ when the parliament had not legalised the November 3, 2007, emergency and the actions taken under it. The court had also made it clear that Justice (r) Dogar will not claim any exception to what had already been declared in the July 31, 2009 verdict.
