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  • Feb 18th, 2011
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A PCO judge of Peshawar High Court (PHC) Justice Jehanzeb Rahim on Thursday issued show cause notices to four sitting judges of Supreme Court for prosecuting him and his fellow PCO judges on contempt of court charges.

A four-member larger bench, headed by Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui, comprising Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, Justice Tariq Parvez and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain on February 2 decided to proceed against unseated PCO judges by framing contempt charges against them on February 21.

"This court, being the apex court in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and not a court subordinate to the Supreme Court, has been noting with grave judicial concern, the consistent subversion of the constitution by a larger bench of the Supreme Court the violation of the oath by office by those judges, wilful failure to act in accordance with the constitution and the law, the trampling of the Code of Conduct issued by the Supreme Judicial Council by them and the disobedience of the decisions of the Supreme Court, has come to conclusion that, in addition to other consequences, these judges are liable to show cause to this court as to why they should not be formally charged for contempt of court.

They have already held themselves that judges of High Court and Supreme Court are not immune from contempt of court," the PCO judge said in his self-written ruling. "Larger bench had not noted that November 3, 2007 judgement was not served upon him."

"My appointing and removing authority as judge of the high court is the President and I was bound to honour his order and not the order passed by persons purportedly acting as judges of the Supreme Court in the evening on 3rd November 2007," he stated.

He also raised various objections against credibility of the November 3, 2007 judgement and observed that order did not qualify as a judicial order. Larger bench also violated the court's July 31, 2009 judgement, which referred the cases of PCO judges to the Supreme Judicial Council.

Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, Justice Tariq Parvez and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain are required to appear in the preliminary hearing before me on February 21, 2011 to explain and justify why a date should not be fixed for framing charges against them.

He said that president should hold an inquiry as to which of the seven member judges, who have signed the November 3, 2007 order, were actually in Karachi and who were in Islamabad. He said in his order that the president should file a fresh reference in the Supreme Judicial Council in respect of complaint's March 5, 2007 of judicial misconduct sent to his predecessor by him against the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan.

The office is directed to fax this order to the SC registrar for serving this notice on the judges of the larger bench. The order shall also serve on the judge's individually through courier and through the SC registrar, PHC dysfunctional judge said in his ruling. He also directed the PHC registrar office to issue notices to advocate general and attorney general for Pakistan regarding the matter as well.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2011


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