KARACHI, May 16: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed contempt proceedings initiated by a division bench of the Sindh High Court against the Karachi Central Prison deputy superintendent for not complying with an order passed by it.

The bench, comprising Justices Sabihuddin Ahmed and S. Ali Aslam Jafri, issued contempt notices to jail superintendent Rashid Saeed and deputy superintendent Kazi Nazeer Ahmed when they failed to comply with its order to free Pakistani-American detainee Haris Hasan on April 16. Both submitted apologies and explanations, which were rejected by the bench and a date was fixed for framing charges. Nazeer approached the Supreme Court against the indictment order and the bench deferred the proceedings.

Appearing for Nazeer, Advocate Raja Qureshi submitted before an SC bench, comprising Justices Nazim Hussain Siddiqui and Abdul Hameed Dogar, that the petitioner tendered “an unconditional, unqualified and unreserved” apology at the earliest opportunity, though he had passed an order for the release of the detainee in compliance with the court order. His apology was not, however, accepted.

Directing that notices of the petition for leave to appeal be issued to the federal and provincial government law officers, the SC bench stayed the contempt proceedings.