KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday deferred for a week the indictment of the provincial police chief and 13 other police officers, including three DIGs, in a contempt of court case after it was informed that the SHC’s order dismissing the apologies of the top police officers had been challenged in the Supreme Court.

Rejecting the apologies of Inspector General of Police Ghulam Hyder Jamali and others, the SHC had on Nov 18 asked the federal and provincial governments to examine “whether it would be feasible to let the alleged contemnors continue on their present postings/position”.

On Wednesday, a law officer filed comments on behalf of the federal government stating that the provincial government had the authority to remove and appoint the IGP under the rules and the federation could only propose an officer to the province for the post.

The alleged contemnors once again filed their apology, but the two-judge bench headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah refused to accept them and directed them to submit their statements in the court’s office.

The indictment of IGP and 13 other police officers deferred till Dec 1

Advocate General Abdul Fatah Malik submitted that he saw the incident on TV channels and was surprised to see police performance.

According to him, the chief minister wanted to take action against the incident but could not do so due to court’s proceedings. He requested the court for the CDs of the footage pertaining to the whole incident, while the court stated that the department had already given the data twice.

The contempt proceedings against IGP Jamali and others were initiated on the petition of disowned Pakistan Peoples Party leader Dr Zulfikar Mirza for besieging the SHC and adjoining antiterrorism courts on May 19 and 23.

During the May 23 siege of the SHC, uniformed and plain-clothes personnel had used force to arrest a number of associates of Dr Mirza who, along with him, appeared in court to seek confirmation of their pre-arrest bail in several cases. Dr Mirza’s guards and some of his associates, as well as media persons, were manhandled at the main gate of the court’s building. Several vehicles parked in the area and media personnel’s cameras were also damaged during the action.

The chief secretary also appeared on court order to submit the reply of the provincial government regarding the action taken against the officers involved in the siege of the high court.

The bench put off the hearing to Dec 1, when the alleged contemnors — IGP Jamali, former city police chief Additional IG Ghulam Qadir Thebo, DIG-South Dr Jamil Ahmed, DIG-West Feroze Shah, SSP retired Captain Muhammad Asad, officer in charge of the Special Security Unit SSP retired Major Saleem, AIG-Legal Faisal Bashir Memon, SSP-City Fida Hussain Janwari, SP-Saddar Zeeshan Shafiq Siddiqui, former SP-Saddar Raees Abdul Ghani, SP-Headquarters (West) Tahir Noorani and Sub-Inspector Jehangir Mahar — would be formally indicted in the contempt proceedings.

While rejecting their apologies, the court had observed: “The regrets, remorse and repentance shown by the alleged contemnors do not appear to be sincere, bona fide and honest, therefore, we decline to accept their apologies. We are of the view that there is sufficient material available on record to proceed against the alleged contemnors in accordance with law.”

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2015