Contempt proceedings: CJ returns plea against PM to single bench

The bench has been asked to check for the maintainability of the plea in the SHC.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court chief justice sent back a petition seeking contempt proceedings against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to the single bench to determine whether or not the petition is maintainable for further proceedings.

Earlier, a single bench, headed by the Justice Farooq Shah, had referred the matter to the chief justice to form a larger bench to hear the contempt plea.

Civil rights campaigner, Syed Mehmood Akhtar Naqvi, had taken the premier to court for allegedly giving inappropriate remarks about Karachi judges before the media.

The contempt application was filed in the high court on October 12.

In his plea, Naqvi had referred to the remarks attributed to Sharif during the announcement of the special anti-terror force on October 10, wherein he was quoted as saying that the judges in the city of Karachi were too scared to decide the terrorism cases under the prevailing law and order situation.

Media reports suggested that Sharif had given such a statement while referring to the murder trial of former special ATC prosecutor, Naimat Ali Randhawa, who was allegedly killed by an activist belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Syed Kazim Abbas Rizvi.

“Prime Minister Nawaz’s remarks were tantamount to ridiculing the honourable judges and committing contempt of the honourable court,” Naqvi maintained in his plea.

He had pleaded the court call the entire records relating to the country’s chief executive’s remarks and then initiate contempt proceedings against him under Article 204 of the Constitution and the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 6^th,2013.