Contempt of court - G-B’s former AGPR chief renders apology. PHOTO: FILE
On Saturday, the Supreme Appellate Court of G-B had asked the police to arrest Mutahir Shah and produce him in court handcuffed for failing to attend case proceedings.
“Shah came to the registrar’s office [on Monday] and submitted an unconditional written apology pleading he did not receive any summons from the court,” said a court spokesman.“As a result, the hearing has been put off till March.”
Based on an application from a former judge justice Altaf Hussain, the apex court had issued contempt notices to Mutahir Shah and the deputy accountant general [DAG] Jangi Banadur for discontinuing pension and other privileges of some retired judges in G-B. In the last hearing, the DAG tendered an unconditional apology in the court and was pardoned.
A day earlier, Mutahir Shah clarified he was no more the regional chief of AGPR, having resigned from office on November 13. “I relinquished charge at my office, but nobody told me about a court summons,” Shah said in a written statement. It further read Shah had only heard about the summons through the media and had never thought of defying court orders.
The G-B AGPR had discontinued judges’ benefits since sometime, referring to the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s (SCP) order that entitled regular pension only to judges whose service tenure is five years or more. However, G-B’s appellate court ruled the SCP’s decision does not apply to G-B and retired judges were entitled to benefits.
Under the G-B Empowerment and Self Governance Order 2009, judges for the superior judiciary are hired on contract for a maximum of three years with salary and other monetary benefits equivalent to the judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 26th, 2013.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ