New bench constituted to hear IG contempt case

New bench will resume hearing contempt of court proceedings against the provincial top cop on Thursday (tomorrow)

KARACHI:

Sindh High Court Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah has constituted a third bench to decide the contempt of court case against IG Ghulam Haider Jamali and other senior police officers.

The new bench, comprising Justices Munib Akhtar and Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar, will resume hearing contempt of court proceedings against the provincial top cop and nine other officers on Thursday (tomorrow).

The officers facing contempt proceedings include IG Jamali, former Additional IG Karachi Ghulam Qadir Thebo, DIG South Dr Jamil Ahmed, DIG West Feroze Shah, SSP Captain (retd) Mohammad Asad, Special Security Unit officer in-charge SSP Major (retd) Saleem, AIG (Legal) Faisal Bashir Memon, SSP City Fida Hussain Janwari, SP Saddar Zeeshan Shafiq Siddiqui, former SP Saddar Raees Abdul Ghani, SP Headquarters (West) Tahir Noorani and Sub-Inspector Jehangir Mahar.



The court had initiated contempt proceedings against IG Jamali and others after the siege of the anti-terrorism court and high court buildings during which supporters of former home minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza and journalists were tortured by masked police commandos in May last year. On December 24, 2015, the division bench comprising Justices Ahmed Ali Sheikh and Muhammad Farooq Shah, had declined to proceed with the case after the alleged contemnors expressed ‘no confidence’ in them. The matter was referred to the chief justice who then constituted another bench to hear the case.

When the matter was taken up on January 18 this year, one of the two judges of the new bench, Justice Karim Khan Agha, declined to hear the case. Thus, the chief justice was once again forced to constitute a new bench.

As the matter was fixed before the new bench on February 17, another judge, Justice Sadiq Hussain Bhatti, distanced himself from the case, thus it was referred to the chief justice for the third time to constitute a bench to hear and decide the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2016.