ISLAMABAD - Issuing show-cause notice for contempt of court to Secretary Law Yasmin Abbasi for not issuing notification regarding the confirmation of Sindh High Court's two Additional Judges, the Supreme Court has directed her to file reply that why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against her for disobeying the court order regarding the matter within two weeks.
A four-member bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali has also rejected the Federal government's review petition against its decision to upheld the Sindh High Court judgement that the decision of Parliamentary Committee (PC) regarding the non-confirmation of two Additional SHC judges for permanent appointment.
The SC on September 7th, 2011 directed the Law Ministry to issue the notification in favour of Justice Ghulam Sarwar Korai and Justice Irfan Saadat Khan with effect from Sept 17th, 2011 when four other incumbents, recommended by the Judicial Commission, were notified after their clearance by the PC "so that they shall have their respective seniority and other benefits in the High Court of Sindh".
But the Law Ministry did not issue notification in this regard and filed review petition against the apex court's September 7th judgement.
It is worth mentioning that the SC has issued second contempt notice to incumbent Law Secretary Yasmin Abbasi as it had initiated contempt proceedings against her, when she refused to tender apology for violating the court's November 3, 2007 judgement and took oath under PCO.
Earlier, on June 11, the SHC had set aside the decision of the Parliamentary Committee (PC) that had rejected the confirmation of the two Additional SHC judges for permanent appointment.
The SHC order was on a petition of Abdur Rehman Farooq Pirzada, President of the Sindh High Court Bar Association, Sukkur chapter, who had challenged the Parliamentary Committee's decision on Sept 9, 2011 pertaining to the rejection of the JC recommendation to confirm Justices Korai and Khan as permanent judges of the SHC. Tenure of the two judges had ended on Sept 24, 2011.
The leave to appeal from the SHC judgement was filed by the Federation of Pakistan through the Secretary of Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Justice, and Deputy Attorney General Ashique Raza represented the case of the Federation on the issue.
The short order of the four-member bench further said: "It is clarified that the said notification shall be deemed to have been issued in favour of Ghulam Sarwar Korai and Irfan Saadat Khan with effect from 17.9.2011 when four other recommendees of the Judicial Commission in the same batch were notified after their clearance by the Parliamentary Committee, so that they shall have their respective seniority and other benefits in the High Court of Sindh."
The Bench also warned that in case the authorities concerned failed to issue the said notification in the stipulated time, "the matter shall be immediately fixed before the court for any further appropriate action against the concerned officials responsible of non-compliance of the above order".
It may be recalled here that the SHC setting aside the impugned decision of the PC in respect of the two judges had observed that the PC purportedly relied on intelligence reports from the Inter-Services Intelligence and the Intelligence Bureau, which did not justify the committee's refusal to accept the unanimous recommendations of the JC.