Supreme Court restrains PCO judges from issuing orders

The Supreme Court on Friday restrained dysfunctional judges of higher judiciary to pass any order against members of the bench hearing contempt cases against them or any other judges of the Supreme Court.
A seven-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry comprising Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Justice Amir Hani Muslim was hearing intra court appeals of two dysfunctional PCO judges of Lahore High Court (LHC), Justice Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi and Justice Hasnat Ahmed Khan, who had requested the court to overturn its February 2 decision of charging them with contempt for taking oath under PCO in defiance of the November 3, 2007, restraining order.
"We are constrained to pass order that all the six judges, namely, Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi, Hasnat Ahmed Khan, Syed Hamid Ali Shah and Syed Sajjad Hussain Shah (Lahore High Court), Justice Yasmeen Abbasey (High Court of Sindh), Justice Jehanzeb Rahim (Peshawar High Court) and Justice Sayed Zahid Hussain (Supreme Court) shall not pass any such order against members of the bench or the judges of Supreme Court, and if any such order is passed by them, the same shall have no legal or binding effect upon this court as well as any other functionaries in the country and shall be deemed to be an order, which is not in existence at all." the order said.
The court noted that the persons whose cases are pending before the four-member bench of the Supreme Court, instead of obeying its orders, have started making attempts to undermine the authority of the SC judges, particularly the members of the bench hearing cases against them. It said according to a note put up by the registrar, Justice Jehanzeb Rahim, a dysfunctional judge of Peshawar High Court issued notices to all of them hearing contempt matter against him to appear before him.
The court said although the order passed by Justice Jehanzeb Rahim was set aside by the Peshawar High Court, yet in order to preserve and protect the dignity and respect of the judges of the bench seized with the contempt matter as well as other judges of the apex court, and in order to ensure the system of administration of justice and honour of SC including high courts and district courts, the dysfunctional judges are restrained to pass any order against any judges of the superior courts.
In his arguments, Dr Basit, counsel for Justice Shabbar Raza Rizvi and Justice Hasnat Ahmed Khan said the Supreme Court''s February 2 decision of framing contempt charge against PCO judges on February 21 did not mention grounds and reasons, thus the hearing on intra court appeals deserved to be delayed till detailed verdict of February 2 short order.
He said the judges who took oath under PCO were being served contempt notices, but those who administered them the oath were left free, which was against the norms of justice. He said those who administered the oath were in uniform, thus they were not asked. He said the then army chief and corps commander should also be prosecuted on the charges being faced by the judges, who took oath under the PCO.
He requested the court to stay proceedings on the intra court appeals till announcement of detailed verdict on appeals of PCO judges. Concluding his arguments, he said proceedings against judges could only be initiated under Article 209 of the Constitution and not under the contempt law. S. M. Zafar, counsel for Justice Sayed Zahid Hussain as well as other counsels for PCO judges informed the court that few other appeals were also filed against February 2 order. The court then said it will be appropriate that all the cases are clubbed and disposed of together, after hearing them.
The court noted that the seven-judge bench was constituted on the request of counsels for PCO judges, however no other request for fixation of other cases was received by the office within time, thus the same were not fixed along with these appeals. "Be that as it may, in the interest of justice, we consider it appropriate to allow the counsels appearing in other appeals to make application for hearing of their cases before the bench till 2:30 Friday and on receipt of such applications for urgent hearing, the cases will be fixed on February 21, before this bench," the court in its order said.