PESHAWAR, Feb 18: A full bench of the Peshawar High Court on Friday set aside the order of a dysfunctional judge of the court, Justice Jehanzaib Rahim, wherein show cause notices were issued to four judges of the Supreme Court and they were summoned by him.

The bench comprising Chief Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel observed that the order issued by Justice Jehanzaib Rahim was illegal and he had overstepped his powers.

Justice Jehanzaib Rahim had a day earlier issued an order from his chamber wherein he asked four judges of a larger bench of the Supreme Court -- Justice Shahid Siddiqui, Justice Jawad S Khwaja, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Pervez -- to appear before him on Feb 21 for explaining and justifying why a date should not be fixed for framing charges against them for committing contempt of court.

The said larger bench of the Supreme Court has already fixed Feb 21 for framing charges against some judges of the superior courts including Justice Jehanzaib Rahim in a contempt of court case as they have been charged of taking oath under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) despite issuance of a restraining order by a seven-member bench of the Supreme Court on Nov 3, 2007.

While the present case related to the controversial order of Justice Jehanzaib was not fixed for hearing in the cause list released for Friday, Chief Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan constituted the special bench to set aside the said order. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Advocate General Asadullah Khan Chamkani also appeared before the bench on a short notice.

The bench also ordered to withdraw the staff assigned to him. The bench questioned how Justice Jehanzaib Rahim could pass a judicial order when he had been dysfunctional since 2009. It was observed that Justice Jehanzaib had himself opted to become dysfunctional after the Supreme Court had issued contempt of court notice to him.

The bench observed that Justice Jehanzaib had violated the Peshawar High Court (Establishment of Benches) Rules, as under those rules the chief justice was empowered to constitute roster of judges and to assign work to benches.

Furthermore, the bench observed that the chief justice had already restricted the judges of the high court from exercising suo motu powers and they could only do so after consultation and approval of the chief justice. It was added that Justice Jehanzaib could not take notice of the case and issued order in it unless the same was assigned to him by the chief justice.

Justice Jehanzaib in his seven-page order had also directed that a copy of this order should also be sent to the president to initiate proceedings before the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) against the four judges. He had observed that upon the proclamation of emergency on Nov 3, 2007, he ceased to be a judge of the high court and so were the judges of the Supreme Court, there was no order applicable upon or binding him not to take oath.

The judge had also directed the president to hold an inquiry as to which of the seven judges, who have signed the order of Nov 3, 2007, were actually in Karachi and who were in Islamabad.