The Supreme Court Wednesday rejected a plea moved by former 'chief justice of Pakistan' Abdul Hamid Dogar, objecting to the current proceedings against judges for taking oath under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) in violation of the verdict rendered by a seven-member bench of the apex court on November 3, 2007.
A four-member bench comprising Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Pervez in its short order verbally dismissed the plea moved by Abdul Hameed Dogar. The civil miscellaneous application was moved by former chief justice of Pakistan Abdul Hamid Dogar through his counsel Raja Ibrahim Satti, under Article 10 (A) related to holding of fair trial read with Rules 6 of the Supreme Court Rules 1980.
The counsel had contended that his client was caught by surprise when it came to his knowledge that on direction of this bench a criminal original no: 2 of 2011 was filed against him regarding contempt of court issue in which the bench become a complainant and interested party.
He said by doing so the bench members were legally disqualified to further proceed on the instant matter. He said all members of the bench were also violators of the alleged order of November 3, 2007 and therefore, one set of violators could not hear the case against similar persons. "The unholy haste and anxiety shown by the bench further disqualified the bench to proceed with the matter as done in the Chief Justice of Pakistan case," he added.
The counsel said his client was of the opinion that under current circumstances, he would not get a fair trial as guaranteed under Article 10(A) of the constitution. He prayed to bench to recuse themselves from further proceedings in the larger interest of justice.