ISLAMABAD, April 30: The Supreme Court was asked on Monday through a petition to initiate contempt of court proceedings against President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz for summoning Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to the president’s camp office in Rawalpindi and restraining him from leaving for over four hours in order to force his resignation.

Filed by Advocate Muhammad Ikram Chaudhry on behalf of Awami Tehrik president Rasul Bakhsh Paleejo, the petition stated that the president and the prime minister had committed contempt of the court by summoning the chief justice on March 9 and exerting pressure on him to tender resignation by holding him there the chief justice for over four hours.

A request has also been made for fixing the matter on May 7, when a five-member bench will commence hearing of a number of petitions, including that of the chief justice, against filing of the reference and the composition of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).

In all, 38 petitions against the presidential reference and related matters will be clubbed together and placed before the larger bench comprising Justice M. Javed Buttar, Justice Nasirul Mulk, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed, Justice Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmed and Justice Hamid Ali Mirza.

Narrating the events of March 9, the petitioner pleaded that both the president and the prime minister should be prosecuted under Article 204 of the Constitution for maligning the judiciary and hurting a vital pillar of the state.

Law Secretary Mansoor Ahmed, the defence ministry and two national dailies are also respondents in the petition.

The petitioner sought contempt of the court proceedings against the president and others for alleged contemptuous, indecent and extra-constitutional procedure they had adopted to subdue the judiciary.