ISLAMABAD: A lawyer has sought initiation of contempt proceedings by the Supreme Court against its former chief – Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry – for allegedly lowering the dignity of the court by writing a letter to the incumbent chief justice to seek personal benefit.
Advocate Riaz Hanif Rahi filed the petition in the Supreme Court on Wednesday under Sections 3 and 5 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003, read with Article 204 of the Constitution. According to the petition, on August 2 the former CJ had written the letter to Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and requested him to address the issue regarding allotment of a plot in Islamabad.
The author of the letter said that a controversy over allotment of the plot had been unnecessarily created because of influence of a sitting judge of the apex court. The petition claims that the letter was written on a letterhead having the logo of the Supreme Court.
Besides, the former chief justice attributed the word “Justice” to himself without adding the word “retired” – gave an impression that he is still part of the institution as a sitting judge.
The petition says that the former chief justice is no more part of the institution after his retirement and therefore lost the entitlement to allotment of the plot. The petition further said that the ex-CJ was using an official bulletproof vehicle and its fuel and maintenance costs were paid by the government – which again was against the law.
It recalls that retired Justice lodged a criminal case in 2013 against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chief Imran Khan – accusing him of ridiculing and maligning the judiciary. On the same grounds, the former CJ should also be made answerable for lowering the dignity of the judiciary, the petition says.
