SC dismisses IG Sindh’s appeal in contempt case

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday dismissed as withdrawn the appeal of Inspector General of Police (IGP), Sindh, filed against his indictment by the Sindh High Court in a contempt of court case.
A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa heard the appeal filed by IG Sindh against his indictment in a contempt of court case.
The court dismissed the appeal after the IG Sindh withdrew it. The SHC had issued contempt of court notices to 14 police officers including IG Sindh Ghulam Haider Jamali and Additional IG Ghulam Qadir over a court siege during a police operation on May 23 to arrest former home minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza and his supporters as well as over the manhandling of journalists.
The police officers than tendered an unconditional apology before the learned High Court; however, the court rejected the apologies and ruled that all the officers will be indicted in the instant case.
The officers approached the Supreme Court against the SHC’s November 18 order, which had directed them to approach for high court.
The federation had submitted its reply in the SHC, in which it stated that decision to remove IG Sindh Ghulam Hyder Jamali was to be taken by the provincial government.
Provincial Chief Secretary also submitted reply on behalf of Sindh government. He said the provincial government will comply with the court orders; however, it was appropriate time to take action against higher police officials.
On Thursday, Farooq H Naik, counsel for IG Sindh submitted before the court that Zulfiqar Mirza had moved a letter to the Registrar Sindh High Court which was converted into a constitutional petition and later on it took suo moto notice in the instant matter.
Farooq H Naik further submitted that taking suo moto notice was the jurisdiction of Supreme Court.He further contended that IG Sindh and other police officials had tendered unconditional apologies before the learned High Court however, he said that the court rejected their apologies and issued orders for their indictment.
The court however, asked the learned counsel to tender apologies again, saying that apology can be tendered even on last stage. Naik said that if my client was indicted he can lose his job adding that the committee constituted for probing the incident was not even provided CCTV videos.
He questioned as to how contempt of court case could be initiated on a constitutional petition adding that there were no solid evidence in the instant case and allegations were leveled on mere assumption.
Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, however, observed that the police subjected the people to torture which is a big issue adding that damages caused to public properties. He said that let the Sindh High Court decide the matter and prima facie evidence were available on the record.
He further observed that the High Court had not yet issued any order against the police chief and other police officials at which the Supreme Court may intervene in the instant matter.
Naik submitted that a contempt of court cases is not justified in the matter adding that law was violated on which departmental action could be taken.
The learned counsel further contended that they tendered unconditional apology before the learned high court which was rejected. Justice Khosa however, asked the learned counsel to keep on tendering apology at every level as he said that the whole country watched the matter live.
Justice Gulzar Ahmed, another member of the bench observed that unfortunately high officials were often saved whenever an incident occurred.Meanwhile, the court dismissed the appeal of IG Sindh as withdrawn.