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Summary
Rejecting the PCO judges petitions, Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that all the nine judges have to undergo court prosecution for contempt of court, Dunya News reported on Wednesday. The court has summoned nine PCO judges on February 21.The verdict said contempt of court proceedings will go ahead against the PCO judges.The judges were facing contempt charges for taking oath under the PCO defying a restraining order issued by a 7-judge bench on November 3, 2007, moments after the proclamation of emergency by the then president General (r) Pervez Musharraf. Giving out its final verdict on the case, a four-judge SC bench comprising Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui, Justice Jawwad S. Khwaja, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez had been hearing contempt cases against Justice (r) Abdul Hameed Dogar, former chief justice of the Supreme Court; Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry, former chief justice of the Lahore High Court; and eight sitting judges Justice Sayed Zahid Hussain of the Supreme Court and Justices Khurshid Anwar Bhinder, Hamid Ali Shah, Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry, Hasnat Ahmed Khan, Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi, Yasmin Abbasey and Jehan Zaib Rahim of different high courts. The court also issued notices to former president Pervez Musharraf, former premier Shaukat Aziz, the corps commanders at the time of the imposition of the November 3, 2007 emergency and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani. The 9 PCO judges would be indicted on February 21 over contempt charges for taking oath under the PCO in defiance of a restraining order issued by a seven-judge bench on November 3, 2007, moments after the proclamation of emergency by Pervez Musharraf. Two SC judges Zafar Iqbal and Khursheed Anwar Bhinder have not been issued contempt notices.
