PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday withdrew a contempt of court notice given to senior lawyer Babar Sattar for writing a column in a newspaper asking him to be careful in future.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Roohul Amin Khan Chamkani observed that the court was not in favour of putting restrictions on the freedom of expression of an individual but there should be some limit to that freedom.

The court had issued contempt of court notice to Babar Sattar few days ago and had asked him to submit reply to the notice in 15 days.

Mr. Sattar had published a column “In the name of justice?” in Feb this year in which the procedure adopted for appointment of 25 additional district and sessions judges in KP was criticized on certain grounds.

Senior advocates Asma Jahangir, Abdul Lateef Afridi and PHC Bar Association’s President Muzamil Khan appeared for Mr. Sattar and contended that their client’s column was not aimed at defaming or ridiculing the court and instead it was only meant to highlight the need for improving the system.

Asks Babar Sattar to be careful in future while writing columns

They added that Mr. Sattar could never think of defaming the court.

The chief justice observed that the court was not averse to positive criticism but it should not be to the extent of defaming the judiciary.

Ms Asma Jahangir said her client had utmost respect for the judiciary and also expected the judiciary to show generosity towards lawyers pointing out any flaw in the system.

She said the bar and bench were part of the same system and sometime they had to ignore each other flaws.

“The dignity of courts is attached to the judgments delivered by them,” he said.

The lawyers said presently, several irresponsible debates had been taking place in talk shows on television channels but that did not mean that all those discussions should be taken seriously.

They added that the lawyers always supported respect for superior courts and expected that the chief justice had been occupying a very responsible position and therefore, he might show restraint in such like cases.

COMPENSATION ORDERED: The bench directed the provincial government to pay compensation in accordance with present policy to widow of a schoolteacher, who was kidnapped and killed by militants in 2010.

The bench ruled that the compensation to the petitioner, Maryam Bibi, be paid within a week otherwise action would be taken against the responsible officers of finance department.

The petitioner’s husband Abbas Khan was kidnapped by a militant organisation in 2010 before being killed.

Her lawyer, Ijaz Anwar, said the deceased, a primary schoolteacher, was killed by militants but the government didn’t compensate his family under the ‘shuhada package,’ prompting his client to move the high court.

He said last year, the high court directed the government to make the payment under the said package to the petitioner, but she was paid Rs1 million only.

The lawyer said under the policy, the government had to pay Rs3 million as compensation and Rs2 million on account of a plot for the petitioner.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2016