ISLAMABAD, Feb 18: The Supreme Court reprimanded National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman Admiral (retd) Fasih Bokhari on Monday and accused him of not obeying its order for filing a reply on a contempt charge.

“Non-filing of the reply of the contempt notice is likely to create an impression that the orders of the court are not being complied with and that he is not interested in contesting the contempt matter,” said an order dictated by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry at the end of Monday’s brief hearing in the contempt case.

The NAB chairman was issued the contempt notice on Jan 31 under Article 204 of the Constitution read with Section 3 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance, 2003, for writing a letter to President Asif Ali Zardari and accusing the superior judiciary of influencing the bureau’s ongoing probe into the rental power plants’ scam.

Admiral Bokhari had moved an application before the Supreme Court on Saturday, accusing the judiciary of being biased and pleading to place the case before another bench. But the court office refused to entertain the application for scandalising the judiciary.

When the case was taken up on Monday, Advocate Navid Rasul Mirza told the court that the NAB chairman had submitted the statement but it was returned by the court office and that he intended to make a preliminary submission before the bench.

The counsel complained that no Advocate on Record (AoR), with the assistance of whom petitions and applications were filed before the court, was forthcoming in entertaining the statement of NAB chief.

The counsel was reminded that the Supreme Court, not the NAB, was a constitutional institution and that he should not malign institutions. The court made him realised that it was not concerned with the reluctance on part of the AoR to accept his pleadings. The court said it could not extend any help to the NAB chairman in engaging advocates.

The court ordered Admiral Bokhari to submit his reply after removing objections raised by its office with a direction that the matter would be heard on Tuesday.