KARACHI: Rejecting the unconditional apology of the inspector general of police and other senior officials for the siege of the Sindh High Court on May 23 on the occasion of Dr Zulfikar Mirza’s presence in court, an SHC division bench on Tuesday ruled that the provincial police chief and other officers would be indicted in contempt proceedings against them on May 28.

Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, who heads the two-judge bench, directed IGP Ghulam Hyder Jamali, Karachi police chief Ghulam Qadir Thebo and others to file their respective affidavits telling them that they would be put in the witness box for their cross-examination after arraignment in the contempt case.

The court appointed Additional Advocate General Mustafa Mahesar as prosecutor for the contempt proceedings against the police officers concerned.

The chief secretary and the home secretary also filed their respective reports, which were taken on record.

At the outset of the hearing, the bench plainly dismissed the unconditional apologies and snubbed the police chief and his deputies for not filing their respective affidavits as ordered by the court on Monday.

When counsel for former home minister Dr Mirza’s Advocate Shaikh Jawaid Mir informed the judges that none of the senior officers were placed under suspension, the bench told the IGP that the court would not spare any one including him.

“This is a question of the dignity of this court and nothing is dearer than this for us,” Justice Shah declared, telling the IGP that the court had everything on record, including the call data showing several attempts were made to contact the provincial and city police chiefs for the compliance of the court’s order but in vain as they remained unavailable.

The court observed that there’s more to the episode than met the eye as a number of senior police officers and SSPs from different parts of the city were present on the occasion.

The bench once again rejected the assertions of IGP Jamali that the police force was deployed in view of reports regarding the presence of heavily armed people. “We don’t find you fair. We know you are not fair,” Justice Shah snapped.

Advocate Farooq H. Naek, appearing for the senior police officers, submitted that following the court’s order action was initiated against those responsible for the unlawful action.

The judges recalled that on the directions of the court efforts were made to contact the chief secretary, home secretary, IGP and DIG-South, but none of them was available, even one of the officers of this court was directed to procure the attendance of the in-charge of the police who had cordoned off the SHC but none appeared in the court.

During a previous hearing, the judges observed that the behaviour of police officers led them to believe that the entire operation was conducted under the command of the IGP, as well as the Additional IG Police, Karachi, the DIG and SSP-South.

The bench put off the hearing to May 28.

On May 23, masked and armed policemen in civvies beat up Dr Mirza’s guards inside the SHC building, smashed parked vehicles and snatched cameras from journalists. TV channels showed the masked and armed policemen beating up unknown persons and then putting them into police vehicles before speeding away.

On Monday, Justice Shah came down heavily on IGP Jamali for his failure to protect the SHC. “It’s an attack on the high court and it cannot be tolerated,” he snapped.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2015

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