By IANS,
Islamabad : Twenty-two former judges of the Supreme Court have apologised for taking oath during the emergency imposed by former president Pervez Musharraf, the Online News agency reported Monday.
The apologies were tendered during the hearing of petitions seeking review of July 31 Supreme Court (SC) judgment. Eleven judges have withdrawn their applications.
Fresh notices were issued to Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, who was appointed the apex court chief justice by Musharraf under the Emergency rule, and other judges for not filing replies in the court in connection with contempt of court notices.
A 14-member bench of Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry resumed the hearing Monday.
Malik Qayyum, counsel for former justice Zulfiqar Ali Bokhari, spokesman for the sacked judges, during the hearing pleaded that Bokhari wanted to offer unconditional apology.
The offer came after statements given by Bokhari against the judiciary through multi-media were shown in the court.
The chief justice of Pakistan while expressing displeasure over the statements remarked that such a person must be punished.
Qayyum pleaded that Bokhari regretted the statements.
Justice Ghulam Rabbani observed he had committed another act of contempt of court by telling lie.
Justice Khalil ur Rehman Ramday observed the sacked judges “were our associates”. But this was not the question of personalities but of supremacy of constitution and law.
Munir A. Malik took the plea before the court that Zulfiqar Bokhari be pardoned, while Justice Sair Ali remarked that the judges should tender apology.
The judges who withdrew their applications against contempt notices and tendered apology were M. Bilal Khan, Zulfiqar Bokhari, Tariq Shamim, Asghar Haider, Zubaidat ul Hassan, Saif ur Rehman, Ashraf Bhatti, Ali Akbar Qureshi, Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui, Zawar Hussain Jaffri, Abdul Rehman Pirzada, Khawaja Farooq Saeed, Mrs Qaisar Iqbal, Munir Ahmad Khan, Ejaz ul Hassan, Qaim Jan Khan, Raza Khan, Kaleem Khan, Raj Muhammad Khan, Moosa K Leghari, Said Saeed ul Ashad and Zia Pervez.