Creating division among judges amounts to contempt, warns CJP Gulzar Ahmed

KARACHI: The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, on Friday expressed displeasure over the remarks by the President Sindh High Court Bar Association with regard to separate notes of Supreme Court judges in Justice Qazi Faez Esa case and said that all judgments authored by the judges are in fact Supreme Court’s judgments.

Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, who was invited as Chief Guest at the Sindh High Court Bar Association’s annual dinner, said that by creating an impression that some judges delivered bold judgments while some judges did not do so is not appropriate and such impression should not be created, rather it is a contempt of the Supreme Court.

Justice Gulzar asked bar leaders to avoid creating division in the bench by making such statements as it would jeopardize the credibility of the Supreme Court.He said that all judgements authored by judges of the Supreme Court are Supreme Court judgment and nothing else. Regarding additional land for Sindh High Court and subordinate courts, the CJP said that Supreme Court was in contact with the provincial government to grant land for construction of additional blocks of the Sindh High Court annexe as well as district courts. The CJP, however, did not deliver his keynote speech due to paucity of time.

Earlier, SHCBA President Ziaul Haq Makhdoom while delivering his speech said former president of SCBA has recently revealed in an interview that Prime Minister Imran Khan had offered different bar leaders, who went to him to seek his assistance on various matters concerning the Bar, a conditional assistance on the Bar’s support for the government’s Reference against Justice Faez Isa.

He said that the bars of Pakistan are not amenable to blackmail or bribes and no force in the world can stop us from supporting right against wrong. He appreciated the judgments authored by Justice Maqbool Baqar and Justice Mansoor Ali Shah in the Faez Isa petition. Secretary SHCBA Haseeb Jamali also spoke.