LAHORE, Oct 5 Six judges of the Lahore High Court (LHC), who had taken oath under the Nov 3, 2007, Provisional Constitution Order (PCO), proceeded on leave on Monday after a 14-member bench of the Supreme Court issued contempt of court notices to all those judges who took oath under the PCO in violation of the directives of a seven-member SC bench.

At present, there are 12 PCO judges in LHC who may face proceedings under Article 209 of the Constitution in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).

Judges who proceeded on leave included Justice Mian Najamuz Zaman, Justice M. Bilal Khan, Justice Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi, Justice Tariq Shamim, Justice Syed Asghar Haider and Justice Hasnat Ahmad Khan.

Talking to Dawn, LHC Registrar Tahir Pervez confirmed that his office had received leave applications from these judges.

Two of the judges, Justice Shabbar and Justice Bilal, were already on one-day leave on Monday, however, they sought extension to their leave, the registrar said. However, he could not confirm the exact period of leave these judges wanted to avail. On the other hand, sources told Dawn that almost all the six judges went on leave for a week.

These six judges were confirmed judges of the LHC on Nov 3 when former president General Pervez Musharraf (retired) had imposed emergency in the country and promulgated PCO and they had taken oath under the PCO in violation of a restraining order issued by a seven-member Supreme Court bench on the same day, directing all the judges of superior courts not to take oath under PCO.

After the July 31 judgment, these judges were allowed to continue their judicial work, however, it was ordered that proceedings under Article 209 be initiated against them before the SJC.

On Nov 3, 2007, as many as 21 out of 31 judges of the LHC had taken oath under the PCO while the remaining ones, including the current LHC chief justice, Justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif, were sacked.

The LHC judges who had taken oath under the PCO on Nov 3, but were still in the judiciary are Justice Maulvi Anwarul Haq, Justice Muhammad Khalid Alvi, Justice Fazal-i-Miran Chauhan, Justice Hamid Ali Shah, Justice Syed Sajjad Hussain Shah and Justice Syed Sakhi Husain Bokhari.