MUZAFFARABAD, May 15: Azad Jammu and Kashmir Supreme Court here on Friday convicted the pro-chancellor of the Al Khair University of contempt of court.

Mr Mohammad Bashir Goraya was sentenced to imprisonment till the rising of the court and fined Rs5,000 by the two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Mohammad Yunus Surakhvi and Justice Chaudhry Mohammad Taj.

In case of a default of payment of the fine, he was to serve simple imprisonment of seven days but he deposited the amount.

Mr Goraya had a dispute over the ownership of the Al Khair University, established by an act of the AJK Legislative Assembly in 1994, with former AJK premier Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan and Prof Parishan Khattak.

His petition was rejected by the high court in 1998, but he got a verdict in his favour in appeal from the Supreme Court in 2000.

The other party filed a review petition in the apex court. But on May 3, 2003, just two days before the announcement of the judgment by the court, Mr Goraya filed an application alleging that one member of the bench had been influenced by his opponents.

The court postponed the announcement of its verdict and proceeded with the application which was dismissed in August as vexatious, scandalous and baseless with costs amounting to Rs5,000.

Following the court decision, a senior AJK lawyer and former LA speaker Abdul Rashid Abbasi, requested the court to punish Mr Goraya for scandalizing the office of a learned judge.