PESHAWAR, Oct 11 A judge of the Peshawar High Court, Justice Jahanzeb Rahim, has decided to contest a contempt of court notice issued to him by the Supreme Court and is likely to file his reply in this regard on Monday.

Sources close to the high court judge told Dawn that he tried to submit his reply in the Supreme Court on Friday but an advocate-on-record declined to do so as in his opinion the reply was 'harsh'.

Justice Jahanzeb Raheem is among the three sitting judges of the PHC who have been issued contempt of court notices by the Supreme Court for violation of a seven-member bench judgment of Nov 3, 2009. The other two judges -- Justice Said Maroof Khan and Justice Hamid Farooq Durrani -- have already gone on leave after the issuance of the said notices.

Five former judges of the high court have already tendered unconditional apology to the notices served on them.

It is learnt that in his reply Justice Jahanzeb Raheem has raised many questions pertaining to the Nov 3 order of the apex court and the situation emerging after it. He stated that for all the reasons given by him and more to be addressed by his counsel in arguments, charges of disobedience of any order not served upon him, was devoid of cause.

In the reply he states that he along with all judges of the high court and the Supreme Court were removed from office by the PCO No.1 of 2007, issued on Nov 3, 2007.He stated that he accepted the same as a fact. This had also happened before, as the judges had been removed, after extra constitutional interventions by the armed forces of Pakistan, usually by not inviting them to take oath.

Justice Jahanzeb Raheem pointed out that these interventions in 1958, 1977 and 1999 were accepted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. “Thus in line with the tradition set by the Supreme Court of Pakistan since 1958, I accepted my removal as part of the pattern in our country with the take over to be stamped with approval by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.”

Justice Jahanzeb claimed that the Nov 3, 3007 order was not delivered to him by anybody. He states that the oath of chief justice taken by Abdul Hameed Dogar and three other judges on the night of Nov 3, fortified his conclusion that Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry stood removed along with all other judges and the office of CJ of the Supreme Court as well as CJs of high courts' and judges stood vacated.

He added that there was no reason for him to have even an iota of belief that Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, CJ, was still the de jure chief justice or that the PCO of Nov 3rd, 2007 was ineffective.

“On Nov 4, 2007, when I took the oath, neither a certified copy of the order had been served nor even received by the Registrar of Peshawar High Court nor, till date, have I seen a copy of the order signed by Seven Member Bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan,” he stated.

There is, therefore, no question of disobedience of an order which was neither served nor communicated.

Justice Jahanzeb contended that the issuance of show cause notice was also premature as the Supreme Court had yet to determine some fundamental issues.

He questioned whether the notice issued to him was not discriminatory as no person/s ostensibly restrained in paras (i) and (iii) in the order of Nov 3, 2007, had been issued similar notices of contempt.

He further questioned whether the show cause issued to him should not also be issued to Justice Sardar Raza Khan, Nasirul Mulk, Tasaddaq Hussain Jilanee, Shakirullah Jan, Sarmad Jalal Osmany and others who took oath after Nov 3, 2007 and before Mar 22, 2009, in violation of the order of Nov 3 from a person who, according to the judgment, was not the chief justice of Pakistan and whether the non issuance of notices to them was not discriminatory.