LAHORE, Feb 18: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday admitted an appeal moved by the Lahore senior superintendent of police (Operations) and suspended the sentence awarded to him by a single judge for contempt of court.

SSP Aftab Ahmad Cheema was convicted by Justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif on Feb 8 for not arresting two doctors sentenced by the LHC and the Supreme Court under the influence of Health Department secretary Hasan Waseem Afzal, elder brother of one of the convicts. He was sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment for 15 days and pay a fine of Rs1,000 or serve seven days more in jail.

The appellate bench comprising Justices Karamat Nazir Bhandari and Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry issued notice to the state for March 5, which was accepted by advocate Shan Gul on behalf of the advocate-general. The trial judge had himself suspended the sentence for 10 days to enable the convicts to file appeals as free men.

Justice Sharif had initiated suo motu proceedings against the SSP and the health secretary for failing to act against the two doctors, Dr Nadeem Afzal Ashrafi and Dr Muhammad Afzal of the medico-legal department, whose conviction became final on June 13, 2001, when the Supreme Court dismissed their review petition against its judgment partially upholding the LHC order against them. They were found guilty of issuing and signing a fake medical certificate to protect police torturers of an unlawfully detained boy.

The SSP submitted in his appeal filed through Advocate Abid Hasan Minto that he had tendered an unqualified apology in response to Justice Sharif’s contempt notice of Jan 28 but it was rejected and he was asked to file a reply. He arrested doctors Afzal and Ashrafi on Jan 29 and 31, respectively, and regretfully explained the delay in the implementation of court orders in his written reply to the contempt notice.

He said he explained his position to Justice Sharif only when his apology, which was neither late not half-hearted, was rejected. According to him, the Lahore district magistrate’s direction for the arrest of the convicts was received by the DSP (Legal) on July 4, 2001. The DSP forwarded it to the SP (City) for compliance and from then on, it was for the SP and not for him (the SSP) to pursue the matter. Neither he nor the co-accused health secretary was examined to justify the conclusion that he had become a tool in the latter’s hands.

According to the record, the SSP said, the SP (City) marked the DM’s letter to the DSP (Old Anarkali) on July 7, 2001, who returned it on July 20 with the remarks that the matter pertained to the New Anarkali circle. The SP then deputed the New Anarkali SHO to arrest the convicts. The SHO assigned the job to Sub-Inspector Muhammad Ashiq — ‘who has since been demoted to the rank of assistant sub-inspector.’

Ashiq reported on Aug 26 that both the convicts had been ‘dismissed’ by the Health Department and that their whereabouts were not known. The SP then asked the SHO to ‘locate’ the convicts. No report had since been received from the SHO or the police station.

A special team was constituted by the SSP ‘under the direct supervision of the SP (City)’ when the contempt proceedings started. Dr Afzal was arrested on Jan 29, 2002, and Dr Ashrafi two days later. Meanwhile, departmental action has been initiated against the delinquent police officials.

SECY’S APPEAL: Secretary Hasan Waseem Afzal also challenged his conviction on Monday. Filed through Barrister M Saleem Sahgal, it would come up before the same division bench on Tuesday. The 10-day suspension period allowed by the trial judge expires on Wednesday.