It may be added that Abdul Hameed Dogar on Tuesday said no judges including him had committed the contempt of court by taking oath on 3rd November 2007 under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO).
Addressing a news conference after filing his reply to the contempt notice and two other miscellaneous applications in the apex court on Tuesday, Dogar said he did not have the knowledge of order of the 7-member bench of the Supreme Court on 3rd November restraining the judges to take a fresh oath under the PCO. Expressing surprise over Dogar's contention, former Justice Wajihuddin Ahmad said Dogar violated his own oath to defend and protect the Constitution by taking another oath under the PCO, an extra-constitutional act of the military dictator General Pervez Musharraf.
Former Chief Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui said that the former Judge of the Supreme Court should have replied to the charges against him in the court as a contemner is not allowed to address a press conference. He said the new Parliament has not validated the PCO and other steps taken by Pervez Musharraf under the emergency laws in 2007 as was done previously in the 17th Constitution Amendment in 2002, therefore Dogar's oath as Chief Justice under the PCO was illegal and unconstitutional.
Former Justice Tariq Mahmood, a former President Supreme Court Bar Association argued that former Chief Justice Dogar had conspired with the military dictator to pack up the Supreme Court and other superior courts of the country.
He said Justice Dogar was residing in the Supreme Court Judges' Colony where General Pervez Musharraf had house arrested Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and ten other judges of the Supreme Court. "How is it possible that contemner did not know about the house arrest of the Chief Justice and his other peers", he asked.
Former President of the Lahore High Court Ahmad Awais contended that former justice Abdul Hamid Dogar should be tried with dictator Pervez Musharraf under Article 6 of the Constitution on the charges of high treason for violating the Constitution.
Former Justice and Attorney General Malik Mohammad Qayyum said that it is for the first time that contempt notices have been issued to the former Chief Justice and the Judges who had taken oath under the PCO. He opined that this would damage the good impression of the judiciary.