IG, CC, SSP and DC found guilty
ISLAMABAD – Supreme Court of Pakistan Thursday convicted former top brass of the federal capital for manhandling Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on March 13.
Former Inspector General Police (IGP) Islamabad, Iftikhar Ahmed, former Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), former Chief Commissioner Khalid Pervez and Deputy Commissioner under suspension, Chaudhry Muhammad Ali, are among the convicted.
They were found guilty of manhandling or roughing up the country’s top adjudicator, outside the Balochistan House, only three days after his ouster from the office, following the filing of the reference by the ruling regime against him.
Announcing the verdict of the case, a three-member bench, headed by Justice Rana Bhagwandas, observed that in the present case, the accused were found to be guilty of gross incompetency for indulging into unprecedented act of physical assault on the person of the head of supreme Judiciary.
IGP Iftikhar Ahmed and SSP Zafar Iqbal were sentenced to undergo 15 days simple imprisonment, while his three subordinates, DSP Jamil Hashmi, Inspector Rukhsar Mehdi and ASI Sirj, who was guard of the convicted IGP, were awarded one month jail imprisonment.
The convicted Chief Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner were sentenced to sit in the court till its’ rising as punishment for also being responsible for the sad incident.
However, the punishment was later suspended on the request of Mujeeb-ur-Rehman Advocate, the counsel for the contemnors, who prayed before the bench to allow him time for filing intra-court appeal. The court has given a 15 days time to file appeal against their conviction.
The decision was reserved since May 8, when the bench had completed hearing of the issue in the light of evidence recorded in a judicial inquiry conducted by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan of Peshawar High Court and recording statements of the accused officials. The bench had also seen films of private TV channels covering the unpleasant episode.
Proceedings were initiated against the contemnors when Justice Javed Iqbal, the then Acting Chief Justice of Pakistan, took up suo motu notice of the incident on March 14 and ordered a judicial inquiry into the matter to fix the responsibility.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was manhandled shortly after he left his residence along with his wife for facing a reference against him in Supreme Judicial Council.
It was for the first time when the CJP had publicly appeared after being referred against by the ruling regime.
During the proceedings before the bench, all the seven accused officials had sought unconditional apologies for their involvement in the incident.
The bench however observed in its judgment that there was no inflexible rule of jurisprudence, which states if the apology is found to be unconstitutional, it must be followed by complete surrender and without demonstrating any justification.
One of the contemnors, IGP Iftikhar is presently posted as Director General in Census Department, SSP Zafar Iqbal is an OSD, DSP Jamil Hashmi is in the traffic police, while Inspector Rukhsar Mehdi and ASI Siraj are in police lines.
Chief Commissioner Islamabad Khalid Pervez has been transferred to Punjab and while Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Chaudhary Muhammad Ali is presently under suspension in another case pending before the apex court in connection with being violent, beating up journalists and lawyers at the Constitution Avenue on September 29.
Constitutional experts say the contemnors would not be able to remain further in service if their appeals against the convictions are upheld.
Besides Justice Rana Bhagwandas, the other two members of the august bench were Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani and Justice Nasirul Mulk.
Source: The Nation
Date:11/2/2007
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