The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Additional Registrar Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court to submit complete report by May 12 regarding the storming of Rawalpindi Bench by the PML-N office bearers in 1995 during the rejection of Shaikh Rashid's bail application in Klashnikov case.
The Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday and Justice Falak Sher held that it was an important case in which the decorum of judiciary was involved, but the case was still pending for adjudication with the magistrate since 1995.
The appeal seeking acquittal has been filed by the Advisor to Prime Minister for Women Development, Special Education and Social Welfare, Miss Nilofar Bakhtiar and 12 others including two men and 10 women.
Muhammad Akram Shaikh, senior counsel for Ms Bakhtiar told the court that on October 8, 1995, the High Court had convicted Shaikh Rashid Ahmed on the charges of possessing and openly waiving a prohibited weapon.
He said on November 11, 1995, when the high court had rejected the bail plea of Rashid, several PML-N workers chanted slogans and unruly environment was witnessed, thus the high court awarded them six-month imprisonment for committing contempt of court.
He submitted that no criminal case was registered against his clients, however, on the orders of high court the accused persons were arrested from outside the court and ladies were shifted to Central Jail, Multan the same night. The court had awarded them six-month imprisonment along with fine.
He pleaded that all the accused persons have undergone imprisonment, thus they may be acquitted. Assistant Advocate General Punjab, Mrs Afshan Ghazanfar told the court that FIR was also registered against the accused persons. She submitted that the accused persons not only chanted slogans against judiciary in the courtroom but also damaged the court property. She said the case was pending since 1995.
Akram Shaikh contended that the judges who rejected the bail plea of Rashid had given false statements, while awarding contempt punishment.
Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry asked Akram Shaikh not to level false allegations on judges and said he should support the court orders instead of opposing.
He also pointed out that Ms Bakhtiar not only had committed contempt but also refused to record her statement. He asked Akram Shaikh not to take the matter easy, as it was the matter of judicial decorum.
Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday observed that Shaikh Rashid and others have been in the government earlier and Rashid again was in the present government and asked whether they ever thought that what they were doing while making appointments in the judiciary. When they will not think, then it would do the same, he said.
Earlier, Justice Iftikhar observed that only two-month sentence (jail) to the accused was not enough in this judicial case and proposed that the case should be remanded to the high court for retrial and giving a fair opportunity of hearing to the appellants.
Meanwhile, the court adjourned the case until May 12.