ISLAMABAD, Nov 1: The Supreme Court on Thursday sentenced Islamabad’s seven senior administration officials and police personnel to suspended jail terms for committing contempt of court by manhandling Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on March 13 while he was going to the court to contest the allegations of misuse of office before the Supreme Judicial Council.

The sentence was suspended for 15 days on a request of the convicts’ counsel, Advocate Mujeebur Rehman, who said he wanted to appeal the convictions.

Former Islamabad chief commissioner Khalid Pervaiz and deputy commissioner Chaudhry Mohammad Ali were sentenced to imprisonment till rising of the court, former inspector-general of police Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmed and senior superintendent of police Capt (retd) Zafar Iqbal were sentenced to 15 days in jail and deputy superintendent of police Jamil Hashmi, inspector of police Rukhsar Mehdi and assistant sub-inspector Mohammad Siraj to one-month imprisonment.

The officers were earlier indicted by a three-member bench comprising Justice Rana Bhagwandas, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani and Justice Nasirul Mulk for maltreating and manhandling the chief justice when he tried to go on foot, along with his wife, to the Supreme Court to face a presidential reference before the SJC after he had been suspended by President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Television footage and newspaper photographs of the incident had caused uproar in the country, leading to strong protests from various sections of the society.

The decision would go a long way towards preventing government employees and security agency personnel from obeying illegal and political orders of their superiors, said senior advocate Ahmed Owais. He told Dawn that at present, law-enforcement agencies were behaving like ‘personality imposing agencies’ to please their superiors.

Former Supreme Court Bar Association president Hamid Khan was of the view that disciplinary action should now be taken against the delinquent officers by their departments.

Authored by Justice Mulk, the judgment said that in view of the peculiar circumstances of the case, unconditional apologies tendered by the officers would not serve to purge the contemners of the contempt which might be considered as mitigating circumstances.

“We are, therefore, constrained to punish the contemners,” the verdict said, adding that the degree of culpability of the contemners, however, varied. “The three police personnel, Jamil Hashmi, Rukhsar Mehdi and Mohammad Siraj Khan, deserve severe punishment in view of their actual use of physical force.”

The IGP and the SSP were present at the scene but they made no effort to stop their subordinate officials from physical harassing the chief justice. The commissioner and deputy commissioner had also failed to perform their duty by making no effort to intervene when police were mistreating the chief justice, the court said.

None of the senior officers, the verdict said, had taken any disciplinary action against the subordinate police personnel, which indicated their approval of the action.

In a separate note, Justice Bhagwandas held that the contemners had ridiculed the dignity and honour of the superior judiciary and acted recklessly.

“It is for this reason that despite bona fide repentance and remorse expressed by them, it is found necessary to convict them and award punishment commensurate with the gravity of offence committed by them.”

Indeed, the judge said, there was no inflexible rule of jurisprudence that even if apology was found to be unconditional it must be followed by complete surrender and without demonstrating any justification.

“I am, therefore, of the considered view that proposed punishment awarded to the respondents would be consistent with the spirit of the law of contempt so as to deter recurrence of such offence at the hands of unscrupulous persons in authority,” Justice Bhagwandas said.