KARACHI: SHCBA chief, others submit statement in contempt case
By Shujaat Ali Khan
KARACHI, Feb 20: The prosecutor, the defence counsel and the Sindh High Court Bar Association president submitted a joint statement before an SHC full bench on Monday in a contempt case against a lawyer.
The bench, which consisted of Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Mushir Alam, brought the statement on record and adjourned further proceedings to March 20 to enable defence counsel Rasheed A. Razvi to submit additional documents.
Advocate Khwaja Shamsul Islam is facing proceedings on a reference made by a division bench, comprising Justices Ghulam Rabbani and Munib Ahmed Khan. The lawyer is accused of making contemptuous remarks against the senior judge. A number of advocates are representing the lawyer but Justice Jamali observed on Monday that the matter did not involve relations between the Bar and the Bench as such. It was the conduct of an individual lawyer who made an unfounded allegation of bias against a judge, he said,
The statement submitted by Advocate-General Anwar Mansoor Khan, who is prosecuting the case under the SHC rules, defence counsel Rasheed Razvi and SHCBA President M. Ilyas Khan, who has been asked to assist the bench, said an advocate’s duty to the court is categorically laid down in the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act and the rules framed under it.
According to a key provision, “it is the duty of an advocate to maintain towards the court a respectful attitude, not for the sake of the temporary incumbent of the judicial office, but for the maintenance of its supreme importance. Judges not being wholly free to defend themselves, are peculiarly entitled to receive the support of the Bar against unjust criticism and clamour.
At the same time, whenever there is proper ground for complaint against a judicial officer, it is the right and duty of an advocate to ventilate such grievances and seek redress thereof legally and to protect the complainant and the person affected.”
Citing an article written by an Indian high court judge, the statement said the above provision is binding and the court has to act against an advocate contravening it. However, the court may, at the same time, require judges to be equally courteous and polite towards the members of the Bar, the statement added.
PROMOTION CASE: The Sindh High Court has directed the Central Selection Board to convene by March 11 and decide on the promotion of a grade 19 income tax officer ‘honestly and fairly assigning valid and proper reasons for its decision’.
The order was passed by a division bench,m comprising Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Ali Sain Dino Metlo, on a petition moved by Haseebul Haq through Advocates Gohar Iqbal and Mansoorul Haq Solangi.
The petitioner claimed that he was eligible to promotion to grade 20 in September 2003 when several officers of his rank, including one junior to him, were promoted. He was superseded on the ground that he did not enjoy a good reputation.
He approached the Federal Service Tribunal, which found the ground in respect of his reputation entirely unsubstantiated as according to the government’s ‘quantification formula’, the officer had obtained 87.2 and 88.1 per cent marks for moral and intellectual integrity and had been rated over and above seven of his promoted colleagues. In terms of quality and output, he was better than 13 such officers.
The tribunal converted Mr Haq’s supersession to ‘deferment’ and asked the establishment division in October 2004 to convene a meeting of the selection board to reconsider the appellant for promotion from the date his juniors were promoted. A CSB meeting was held in December 2004 and while another successful appellant and two other junior officers were promoted, Mr Haq was again overlooked.
He moved the high court, challenging both the promotion notifications and seeking implementation of the FST judgment. It was contended on the respondents’ behalf that the tribunal’s decision had been implemented as the selection board reconsidered his case but decided to ‘defer’ it.
The SHC division bench observed that it was at a loss to understand how ‘deferment’ of the promotion case could be treated as compliance with the tribunal’s order, which called for a decision on promotion. What the respondents were evidently required to do was either to promote the petitioner with retrospective from the date of the promotion of officers junior to him.
Referring to the petitioner’s service record, the bench observed that he appeared to have been condemned unheard. Even after the FST decision he was being deferred without disclosure of a single instance that could possibly cast an aspersion on his integrity.
Declaring the CSB decisions ‘patently mala fide’, it directed the board to hold a meeting by March 11 and pass a speaking order on the matter.
ACQUITTAL SET ASIDE: The Sindh High Court set aside the acquittal of a murder accused by an anti-terrorism court and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The murder occurred at a clinic in Jabbar Plaza, Mansfield Road, Saddar, on Sept 9, 2000. An intelligence agency havildars Mohammad Akram and Abdul Hameed had taken their ailing peon, Tahir Khaliq, to the clinic on a motorcycle. While they were sitting in the waiting room, a person later identified as Mohammad Yamin barged into the clinic and demanded the key of the motorcycle. On Akram’s refusal, he shot him in the head, killing him on the spot.
The prosecution story, based mainly on Yamin’s confessional statement, is that he went to the clinic along with Israr Ali on a motorcycle and carrying a weapon provided by his brother-in-law, Nisar Ahmed, a police constable, who was declared an absconder. The constable allegedly supplied transport and arms to Yamin and Israr for motorcycle snatching.
An anti-terrorism court acquitted the three accused for want of corroborative evidence. While Akram and Hameed identified Yamin, they knew nothing about Israr or the absconding accused, Nisar. The state moved an appeal through Assistant Advocate-General Habib Ahmed. The acquitted accused were represented by Advocate Javed Akhtar.
Upholding the acquittal of co-accused Israr ansd Nisar, an SHC division bench found Yamin guilty and sentenced him to serve life imprisonment and pay Rs 100,000 as compensation to the victim’s heirs.
HEROIN CASE: An Appellate bench of Sindh High Court, comprising Justice Mohammad Afzal Soomro and Justice Rahmat Hussain Jafferi, on Monday acquitted an accused Azam Shaikh, adds APP.
According to the prosecution, accused was arrested from Jehangir Park and one kg heroin powder was recovered from him. He was tried and sentenced to a seven year term by the trial court.
The bench, after hearing the sides, allowed the appeal and set aside his conviction and sentence.
