ISLAMABAD, Jan 30: A strongly-worded letter critical of the judiciary written by National Accountability Bureau Chairman Admiral (retd) Fasih Bokhari to President Asif Ali Zardari invited the ire of the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The court asked the NAB chief to submit an authentic copy of the letter in which he had accused the superior judiciary of influencing the bureau’s investigation into the rental power projects (RPP) scam.

In the Jan 27 letter to the president, Admiral Bokhari described how the superior judiciary through its notices and verbal and written orders had attempted to undermine the constitutional position of the bureau.

“Contempt notices, verbal orders that differ from written orders, and insufficient time to prepare numerous progress reports, are putting extreme pressure on NAB personnel who appear before the honourable judges,” the letter said.

The NAB chief also offered to quit the high-profile post.

Reacting sharply to the outburst, a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry directed NAB’s Prosecutor General K.K. Agha to ask the chairman to submit an authentic copy of the letter and also disclose which authority had released its contents to the media.

The NAB chairman was not present in the court which briefly heard a case relating to implementation of its judgment in the RPP scam case.

“We will go through it patiently without getting emotional,” the chief justice observed. He also hinted at exploring whether the objective or intention of writing the letter was to put pressure on the court seized with the RPP implementation case and incite hatred against it.

“This is serious,” the chief justice said, adding that so many newspapers had published the contents of the letter. “We have not even allowed a military dictator to interfere with the courts on Nov 3, 2007,” he observed. “We are enjoying the fruits as democracy in the country is due to resistance of the Supreme Court.”

At the outset, the court asked the NAB prosecutor general whether the chairman had written a letter to the president.

“I believe he has written a letter,” Mr Agha said.

“These are courts of law and functioning under the Constitution,” the chief justice observed and asked him whether the chairman had expressed any reservation (against the judiciary) in the letter. “Yes, some reservations have been expressed,” Mr Agha said.

“Kindly ask your chairman to submit authentic copies. We have to see the contents of the letter,” the chief justice said.

Mr Agha said there was a difficulty that the court’s directives could not be conveyed to the chairman unless a written order was issued. He was told that the court was issuing and then started dictating the order.

It transpired, the order said, that during the pendency of the case relating to implementation of the RPP judgment, the chairman had written a letter the contents of which were published by the media.

“When we inquired from the PG about the issuance of the letter by the chairman, he replied in affirmative. When we again inquired from the PG whether the chairman had expressed reservation, he said reservations were expressed. We direct the chairman to place on record the authentic copy of the letter and also disclose the authorities which circulated the contents of the letter,” the order said.

The NAB prosecutor general requested the court to at least provide an opportunity to the chairman to claim privilege on the letter if he wanted so.

The case will be taken up on Thursday.