ISLAMABAD -  The Supreme Court on Friday withdrew contempt notices against superior courts’ judges, who had taken oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order after November 3, 2007, emergency.

A four-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar heard the contempt case against the PCO judges.

The chief justice remarked that Lahore High Court former chief justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry has passed away and the entire matter was 11-year-old. He explained that contempt matters were between the court and the respondents and since the judges were no longer serving, the contempt notices against them were being withdrawn.

Former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf, after imposing the emergency and suspending the Constitution on November 3, 2007, had issued a PCO under which judges had taken a new oath of allegiance.

The Supreme Court in July 2009 judgment had declared taking of the oath under the PCO illegal. The apex court in October 2009 had issued contempt of court notices to superior court judges as they had defied the restraining order issued by a seven-judge bench on November 3, 2007 — the day the emergency was declared.

Twenty-six judges of the Lahore High Court, 20 of the Sindh High Court and 14 to the Peshawar High Court, Supreme Court ex-judge Syed Zahid Hussain, former Chief Justice of Federal Shariat Court Agha Rafiq and others had taken the oath under the PCO. Some of them later resigned and some submitted apologies to the court and were exempted from the case.

However, Justice (retd) Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry, Justice Khurshid Anwar Bhinder, Justice Hamid Ali Shah, Justice Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry, Justice Hasnat Ahmed Khan, Justice Shabbar Raza Rizvi, Justice Yasmin Abbasey, Justice Jehanzaib Rahim and Justice Sajjad Hussain Shah had contested the notices.