LAHORE, June 26: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Thursday set aside the conviction of provincial health secretary Hassan Waseem Afzal and Lahore SSP Aftab Ahmad Cheema awarded to them by a single bench on contempt of court charges.

The provincial health secretary was sentenced to three-month simple imprisonment and fined Rs5,000 while the SSP was ordered to undergo simple imprisonment of 15 days besides being fined Rs1,000 by the single bench on Feb 11, 2002, under the provisions of the Contempt of Court Act, 1976.

According to details of the case, during December 2000, the court bailiff produced Nadeem Iqbal in the court after recovering him from the illegal confinement of Sambrial police. Following the detenue’s claim that he was tortured by the police during his confinement, he was sent to the Punjab medicolegal surgeon by the court where medical officer Dr Muhammad Afzal conducted his examination and ruled out any possibility of torture. His report was verified by Dr Nadeem Afzal Ashrafi, the brother of the health secretary.

The detenue alleged in the court that the medical report signed by the two doctors was not based on facts after which the matter was referred to a panel of Mayo Hospital doctors which confirmed the torture. The court convicted both the doctors for having prepared a false report on Jan 5, 2001. Later on, the Supreme Court set aside the conviction of Dr Muhammad Afzal while it remitted the sentence of Dr Nadeem Afzal to one-year simple imprisonment.

During January next year, the then chief justice of the LHC took suo moto notice of a newspaper item that Dr Nadeem was not arrested by the police following the remission of his sentence by the SC and a judicial inquiry was ordered. Later on, he was arrested and sent to the Kot Lakhpat Jail on the court order.

After holding the inquiry, the court convicted the health secretary on contempt charges for having favoured his brother by reinstating him in violation of the court orders. The court also convicted the SSP for not having arrested Dr Nadeem following the remission of his sentence.

While arguing the appeal of the health secretary before the division bench comprising chief justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry and Pervez Ahmad, his counsel Saleem Saigol submitted that the news item on which the suo moto notice was taken by the then chief justice did not implicate the secretary. He argued that only the SSP was conveyed by the single bench but the court issued a show cause notice to the appellant without any justification while there was no incriminating evidence available against him. According to Mr Saigol, it was not the appellant but his predecessor who had issued the reinstatement orders of Dr Nadeem.

The counsel argued that none of offences as mentioned in the Contempt of Court Act, 1976, attracted to the appellant’s case and there was nothing on the judicial record to suggest that he had violated any of the court order.

SSP’s counsel Abid Hassan Minto also challenged the justification adopted by the single bench to convict his client.