Contempt Of Court: ‘You could go to jail if . . .’

Petitioner states the chief engineer was not following court orders of transferring him back.

LAHORE: Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the Lahore High Court on Thursday issued a notice for contempt of court proceeding against the Irrigation Department chief engineer for not implementing court orders.

The judge said that the chief engineer would be in jail if he did would not obey court orders. Such behaviour by government functionaries is not acceptable, he added.

The judge issued the order on a petition of Ansar Abbas, an employee in the department in Faisalabad. Abbas submitted that Chief Engineer Shafqat Hussain had transferred him over a personal grudge and he had challenged the transfer. He said the court had declared the transfer illegal four months ago but Hussain was not transferring him back.

Abbas said the chief engineer also was not releasing his pay. He submitted that Hussain had committed contempt of court.

The petitioner prayed to the court to direct him to comply with the court order regarding his transfer. The judge issued the chief engineer a notice to reply by Dec 15.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th, 2011.