PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court bench on Monday dismissed a contempt of the court petition against its chief justice and the prime minister and awarded one-day jail term to the petitioner for scandalising the court.

Justice Yahya Afridi of a single-member bench heard the arguments of petitioner Shahid Orakzai, a freelance journalist, and amicus curiae Barrister Waqar Ahmad, and observed that the petitioner didn’t prove that the chief justice and the prime minister had committed contempt of the court.

The judge asked the petitioner to withdraw case or apologise for scandalising the court but the petitioner declined to withdraw the petition following which the bench ordered his arrest and imprisonment for 24 hours.

The petitioner had alleged that a case pertaining to the killing of his elder brother, Major (r) Khalid Saeed Orakzai, wherein he had charged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and others, was heard on Sept 1 by Justice Qaisar Rasheed but the hearing was adjourned to Sept 5 due to a strike by lawyers.

He said on Sept 5, the chief justice fixed the case before himself instead of Justice Qaisar Rasheed and adjourned it for indefinite period.

The petitioner alleged on Sept 5, the prime minister indirectly interfered with the working of the court by secretly maneuvering the murder case, which had been pending verdict since 1997.

In the petition filed under Article 204 of the Constitution, Orakzai asked whether the prime minister could interfere in the proceedings of a murder case heard by the high court of any province and whether under the Code of Criminal Procedure, the chief justice could transfer a murder case in violation of the order of the court.

Lawyer Waqar Ahmad said under the PHC Rules, it was the administrative discretion of the chief justice to fix the cases before different benches.

He said it was not binding on the chief justice to fix the case before the bench, which had heard it earlier.

The lawyer said the fixation of cases was the high court’s internal affair, so it didn’t amount to the contempt of the court.

The bench observed that the petitioner didn’t provide any proof in support of his contention or could prove that the fixation of the case was based on mala fide intentions.

It asked from the petitioner whether he wanted to withdraw the petition or tender an apology for leveling baseless allegations against the chief justice of the court.

However, Orakzai continued to argue and decline to tender an apology.

The petitioner had alleged that neither the Supreme Court nor the high court had ever denied the fact that the murder in 1997 was a direct consequence of a monetary dispute resulting from a 1993 horse-trading deal between the petitioner and the respondent prime minister involving payment of Rs10.5 million to Fata MNAs.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2014