Supreme Court. PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD: After more than a decade, the top court sent to jail police officials found guilty of manhandling former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on March 13, 2007.
The apex court declared that apologies tendered by these police officials were not ‘unconditional, unreserved or unqualified’ and they did not show ‘sincere and genuine remorse’.
However, the court avoided passing any observation on SP Jameel Hashmi contentions -- he had asked the court also to take action against the army officers that held the former CJP hostage at the Army House on March 9, 2007.
Justice Iftikhar manhandling case: SC reserves ruling
The five-judge larger bench, headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, announced the judgment and dismissed intra-court appeals filed and upheld its November 1, 2007 order.
According to the ruling, former Islamabad chief commissioner Khalid Pervaiz and deputy commissioner Chaudhry Mohammad Ali were sentenced to imprisonment till the rising of the court, while former inspector general of police Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmed and SSP Capt (retd) Zafar Iqbal were sentenced to 15 days in jail. Then-DSP Jamil Hashmi, inspector Rukhsar Mehdi, and ASI Mohammad Siraj were sentenced to a month-long imprisonment.
Likewise, their sentences and convictions were suspended till the final decision on their appeals.
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After more than 10 years, the apex court took up their appeals on April 24 this year.
On the same day, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar directed Sheikh Ehsanuddin advocate to ask Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry if he was willing to pardon the contemnors.
Upon this, the former CJP had insisted that even if he decided to pardon them, the issue was linked with the institution’s prestige.
“All unconditional apologies submitted by the appellants (police officials) (can) neither…be considered...unconditional, unreserved or unqualified, nor show sincere and genuine remorse, rather, they appear to be half-hearted [attempts at fulfilling]… formality and … the appellants … even tried to justify their conduct which had become the cause of contempt proceedings,” stated the judgment authored by Justice Gulzar Ahmad.
The court said that the best the appellants could have done was file unconditional apologies, expressing sincere and genuine remorse by throwing themselves at the mercy of the court, but this did not happen.
The order observed that the manner in which the holder of the country’s highest judicial office was dealt, handled and physically restrained in public and in the presence of print and electronic media representatives could not, by any means, be considered a minor incident and allow the accused to be let off by just submitting a series of unconditional apologies.
Such conduct, the verdict stated, required exemplary punishments as it had jolted the very edifice of the judicature as provided in the Constitution and seriously undermined and brought the authority of the court or administration of justice into disrespect, disrepute or interference with or obstruct or interrupt or prejudice the process of law and due course of any judicial proceedings.
The court also observed that looking at the grave nature of contempt, “in our estimation, the court’s earlier proceedings; they had been dealt quite leniently”.
Dismissing all intra-court appeals filed by the accused, the apex court asked the police to take these officials into custody and sent them to the Central Prison in Rawalpindi to serve their respective sentences.
Legal experts said that because of the criminal convictions, these police officers will end up losing all their retirement benefits, including pension and gratuity.
‘Pakistani law is blind indeed!’
Reacting to the verdict, SSP Motorway Jameel Hashmi said an innocent man was sentenced only on a fake newspaper reporter’s account.
“I am fasting today … by God, I wasn’t even present at the scene when the incident took place … this verdict has proved that the Pakistani law is indeed blind,” he remarked.
ایس ایس پی موٹروے جمیل ہاشمی کا سپریم کورٹ کی طرف سے سابق چیف جسٹس افتخار چودھری بدسلوکی کیس میں سابق آئی جی, چیف کمشنر اسلام آباد اور دیگر چھ پولیس افسران اور اہلکاروں کی اپیلیں مسترد کر کے ٹرائل کورٹ کا فیصلہ بحال کرنے پر ردعمل. pic.twitter.com/HxhkurPAIw
— Farid Sabri (@SabriJourno) June 6, 2018
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