Contempt charges against IG: A rare but not unusual indictment

Legal expert says police chief may be moved from field posting

KARACHI: Ghulam Haider Jamali is believed to be the first-ever serving inspector-general of police in the country’s history to have been indicted for contempt of court.

Senior lawyers recalled that no head of any law-enforcement agency was ever formally arraigned for committing contempt of court.

“Indictment (of any private or government servant) is an ordinary matter,” advocate Abrar Hasan told The Express Tribune. “But, this (Jamali’s) is the first ever case of indictment of any police IG to my knowledge,” added the senior lawyer, whose law practice spans over four decades.



In Sindh, where the police force has long been accused of having become politicised, at various times police chiefs have been warned by the superior judiciary of initiating contempt proceedings against them.

May 12 carnage

In 2007, the Sindh High Court (SHC) had issued contempt notices to the then home secretary, IG and others in a case relating to the siege of the high court by unidentified men during a hearing of a suo motu case related to the May 12 bloodshed in Karachi.

Court officials recalled that the fate of the contempt matter remained undecided, as the petitioner had withdrawn his petition for judicial inquiry into the massacre and the subsequent contempt of court application.

Karachi violence suo motu

Resuming the Karachi violence suo motu’s implementation proceedings in 2012, the Supreme Court’s (SC) larger bench had on several occasions warned of initiating contempt proceedings against the then IG Muhammad Fayyaz Laghari and Sindh Rangers DG Rizwan Akhtar for failing to implement the court’s judgment to maintain law and order in the city.

Court officials recalled that the apex court had, however, spared the uniformed chiefs from contempt of court proceedings.

Even after the death of 40 people in two bomb blasts in Karachi’s Abbas Town locality in 2013, the top court had warned of initiating contempt proceedings against IG Laghari, but later the Sindh government was given the choice to surrender his services to the federal government.

Law and punishment

Contempt proceedings are initiated by high courts or the SC under Article 204 of the Constitution.



The article says that the relevant court can punish anyone for abusing a judge, disrespecting the court, disobeying orders, or obstructing the judicial process. Similarly, anyone who tends to prejudice the determination of a matter pending before the court is liable to be punished.

The sentences are awarded under Section 4 of the Contempt of Court Act, 1976, and may see punishment of a maximum six months’ imprisonment and/or fine of Rs5,000.

Severe repercussions

The judiciary rarely uses the contempt law, for severe repercussions of conviction under it.

In 2012, when then prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was symbolically convicted by the SC - ‘till rising of the court [for 37 seconds]’ - the incident led to his disqualification.

“In the past 18 years, I’ve not seen any other case wherein the defendant has been sentenced for contempt,” high court lawyer Muhammad Farooq told The Express Tribune.

“The reason courts rarely convict someone for contempt is that in most of cases, defendants tender unconditional apologies and leave themselves at the mercy of the court,” he said.

IG’s future

Responding to a question whether IG Jamali can enjoy a field posting until the final verdict in the contempt proceedings against him, advocate Farooq said “Earlier, there was no bar on holding official posts.”

But in a recent judgment, the apex court had ruled that anyone facing a criminal case should not be given a field posting.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2015.