Supreme Court bench observation: case against Khosa will be decided without any prejudice

A Supreme Court bench hearing a corruption case against former Attorney General (AG) Sardar Latif Khosa on Friday took serious note of an established practice of accusing the bench and bar of corruption and observed that the case against Khosa will be decided without any prejudice and grudge. After the letter accusing the former AG of corruption, the court received a fresh letter containing similar charges against the judges of the apex court.
Justice Jawwad S Khawaja read out the anonymous letter wherein he along with another judge of the apex court were blamed to have entered a deal with land mafia. The letter had cautioned Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry of the deal. Justice Khawaja observed that we are not afraid of such frivolous allegations as our hands are clean.
A five-member bench comprising Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday, Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Ghulam Rabbani adjourned the matter for a date in office after three weeks. Earlier, on November 5 (Thursday), Advisor to the Prime Minister Latif Khosa had filed an application asking Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday to recuse himself from the bench.
'You are appearing before me for last 11 years and I had never showed prejudice to you, if this was the case you could have told earlier regarding the feelings of your heavy heart,' observed Justice Ramday while addressing Latif Khosa at the onset of the hearing. I have filed the application for recusal after I was accused of corruption, replied Latif Khosa.
Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday remarked that 11 years ago you brought a resolution demanding my termination after a mental test while declaring me as 'mad'. I thank God that I was not blamed for anything else but declared 'mad', he added. 'It was a politically motivated move and I have forgotten that,' Justice Ramday added. He remarked that "I had recused myself from hearing two cases of President Asif Ali Zardari in the past because the then AG was my brother.
He said I have given relief to a number of PPP leaders but has never given to any PML-N leader." Justice Ramday further remarked that 'no one had accused me of any grudge in last 21 years'. In reply to the observation, Khosa said that you sometime insult people appearing before you.
"One gets what he deserve," observed Justice Ramday, adding it is the mandate of this office to provide one what he deserves. However, Justice Ramday said he would think over the matter with a cool mind and will decide regarding recusal. Latif Khosa condemned the anonymous letter read out by Justice Khawaja and termed its language as contemptuous and malicious.
In his application for recusal, the advisor to the PM had contended that on December 29, 1998 Justice Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday while hearing a case of late Benazir Bhutto's political secretary had uttered derogatory and outright insulting remarks against me. Earlier, in October, Latif Khan Khosa was sacked after a complaint of corruption against him.
Dr Mazhar Jamal, wife of the Hamid Maghfoor Shah (complainant) had accused Latif Khan Khosa of having taken a bribe of Rs 3 million from Maghfoor for getting the decision of a case in his favour when Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar was chief justice of the Supreme Court. However, he lost the case and Maghfoor was sentenced to five years' imprisonment and fined over Rs 3 million and $200,000 on corruption charges.