How contempt notice to PM was dealt in past

Daily Times

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani is not the first chief executive who has been served with a contempt notice by the apex court as Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif faced a similar case in 1997.

The Supreme Court has issued contempt of court notice to the prime minister on the charge of not implementing apex court verdict in NRO case and asked him to personally appear before the bench on January 19.

The court had directed the authorities concerned to write a letter to the Swiss court requesting to re-start the proceedings against Asif Ali Zardari on corruption charges. The Gilani government did not implement the order and a seven-member bench maintained: “In these circumstances, we are left with no option, as a first step, to issue a show cause notice. The prime minister should appear personally in court on January 19.”

The hearing of the NRO implementation case was also adjourned to the same day.

Earlier a similar notice had been issued in 1997 by the then chief justice of Pakistan, Syed Sajjad Ali Shah, to Nawaz Sharif. It is not clear that what strategy would be adopted by the PPP leadership and the Gilani government but what did the PML-N leadership and Nawaz government was written in the history books.

The Nawaz government used superior judiciary rather the ‘brother judges’ of the then chief justice Syed Sajjad Ali Shah to release pressure and ‘save’ their government. Interestingly, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah also sought the military help but the then chief of the army staff, General Jehangir Karamat refused to intervene.

On November 3, 1997, chief justice Sajjad Ali Shah issued notices to prime minister Nawaz Sharif on a ‘contempt’ petition. The proceedings were initiated by the apex court and after two weeks on November 19, 1997, a full bench of the Supreme Court issued charge sheets to the prime minister and 11 others.

The proceedings were taking place at the principal seat of the apex court in Islamabad. As per routine of the court, several benches were also working at different registries such as in Lahore, Karachi and Quetta. The Quetta registry bench comprised Justice Irshad Hassan Khan and Justice Khalilur Rehman Khan.

On November 25, 1997, a former member of the bench and employee of Nawaz family businesses, Justice (r) Rafiq Tarar went to Quetta, about 1,600 kilometres away from Islamabad on a special plane and met with Justice Irshad Hussan Khan. His visit turned the situation altogether and the subsequent happenings wrote a new chapter in the judicial history of the country and a strange row of events were seen. An application was moved in the Supreme Court Quetta Registry and the bench comprising Justice Irshad Hassan Khan and Khalilur Rehman Khan held the appointment of their own chief justice, Sajjad Ali Shah, in abeyance till further orders and restrained him from performing judicial and administrative functions. The bench also held in abeyance the operation of the notification of June 5, 1994 (appointing Syed Sajjad Ali Shah as the chief justice of Pakistan by the then prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, on the retirement of Justice Nasim Hasan Shah.

Reciprocating on his brother judges’ order, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah declared the order “without lawful authority”, and directed the assistant registrar, Quetta Registry, not to fix any case before the two judges till further orders.

Justice Shah, whose appointment as the chief justice was held in abeyance by the two-member bench, continued working as the chief justice of Pakistan.

The Quetta bench ‘replied’ with overruling the executive order of Justice Sajjad Ali Shah regarding not fixing the cases before it saying, “It is misconduct on the part of chief justice as none of the Supreme Court judges can be restrained from the work on executive order and said that judicial order had already suspended the chief justice to perform his duties as chief justice.”

The Supreme Court’s circuit bench at Peshawar had also endorsed the verdict of the Quetta bench on a petition challenging the appointment of Justice Sajjad Ali Shah as the chief justice of Pakistan. But Justice Sajjad Ali Shah persevered and continued hearing the contempt case against the sitting prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

A division bench of the Sindh High Court requested the Justice Sajjad Ali Shah to convene a full court meeting of the SC, to be chaired by himself, to consider the controversy surrounding his appointment. But at the same time, the Supreme Court Quetta bench maintained its interim order suspending Chief Justice Syed Sajjad Ali Shah and barring him from performing administrative and judicial functions. The bench referred the matter to the full court for final decision.

Justice Sajjad Ali Shah informed the 10-member bench that he would contest the case, and engaged Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, a prominent lawyer, to represent him.

However, a severe blow to Justice Sajjad Ali Shah came when president Sardar Farooq Khan Leghari tendered his resignation, saying he could not violate the constitution and the law to oblige the government.

Speaking at a press conference, Leghari said that he had opted to resign because he did not want to become a party to the violation of law and the constitution.

On November 26, 1997, Justice Irshad Hussain Khan held Sajjad Ali Shah’s appointment in abeyance.

The lawyer community at that time was heard saying that Nawaz Sharif had succeeded in dividing the judges into two camps. The group of judges, who sided with the prime minister, said openly that if Justice Sajjad Ali Shah gives up trying cases of contempt of court against Nawaz Sharif, they would accept him as the chief justice.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah suspended the operation of the 13th Amendment restoring the powers of the president to dissolve the National Assembly, a verdict which was within minutes set aside by another 10-member bench.

The 10-member bench headed by Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui granted stay against the chief justice’s order minutes after it was passed, even without receiving any formal petition or the copy of the order. All efforts to resolve the judicial crisis failed as both the judges’ groups stuck to their stance and issued separate cause lists.

The dissident judges, who did not acknowledge Justice Sajjad Ali Shah as the chief justice, issued a fresh cause list for 15 members full court session. The full court, headed by Justice Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, took up petitions questioning the validity of chief justice’s appointment’.

On November 28, 1997, thousands of ‘political workers’ attacked the Supreme Court building. A journalist rushed into the courtroom and warned the bench of an impending attack. The chief justice got up abruptly, and adjourned the hearing. While judicial members left the courtroom soon after, the mob entered it shouting slogans, and started damaging furniture. The unruly mob, led by ruling party member from Punjab Sardar Naseem and Colonel (r) Mushtaq Tahir Kheli, Sharif’s political secretary, chanted slogans against the chief justice. The mob also beat up Pakistan People’s Party’s senator Iqbal Haider.

After the incident, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah requested the then army chief, Gen Jehangir Karamat, to send troops to dispel a mob attack on Pakistan’s Supreme Court. Gen Karamat refused his plea straight away and pointed out that “there is an established chain of command and any instructions of that sort should have come from the elected prime minister and the president, who is also the supreme commander”.

On December 23, 1997, the Supreme Court bench declared Sajjad Ali Shah’s appointment as the chief justice illegal and Justice Ajmal Mian was made chief justice of Pakistan. The contempt proceedings against Nawaz Sharif were dropped.