A full court bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday initiated contempt of court proceedings against those involved in an alleged smear campaign against Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, who was not part of the full court bench headed by Chief Justice Aamer Farooq.
Last week, a reference was submitted against Justice Jahangiri alleging he possessed an “invalid” LLB degree and demanding action against him for fraud. Subsequently, the matter went viral on social media, where journalists and the general public alike raised questions over the legitimacy of Justice Jahangiri’s educational degree and criticized him for hearing controversial cases while being a source of controversy himself.
During the proceedings, the IHC CJ addressed the additional attorney general, observing the court cannot tolerate any more malicious campaigns against its judges. He noted the IHC had taken similar notice of an earlier campaign—targeting Justice Babar Sattar—but it had no resulted in any corrective behavior. He warned that those involved in the current campaign would spend their summer behind bars at Adiala Jail.
CJ Farooq remarked that it was the responsibility of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to stop such campaigns. Justice Miangul Hasan Aurangzeb, meanwhile, said the government’s silence on the campaign suggested it implicitly agreed with it. The case was subsequently adjourned until after the IHC’s summer vacations with notices issued to three journalists accused of boosting the alleged campaign.
Justice Jahangiri’s supporters have claimed the reference against him, as well as the allegations of him possessing an invalid degree, was motivated by him being one of the IHC judges who wrote a letter earlier to Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa earlier this year to seek a judicial convention on addressing alleged interference in judicial functions by intelligence agencies. Apart from Justice Jahangiri, the letter was signed by Justices Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Sattar, Arbab Muhammad Tahir, Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan and Saman Rifat Imtiaz.
Earlier, offering their support to Justice Jahangiri, officials of the Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHCBA) had vowed to resist all attempts to deter judicial independence and called on all arms of the state to avoid interfering into each other’s domain. Maintaining the judge’s degrees were verified upon his appointment, they questioned how he could possess an invalid degree that had not come to light before today. Addressing a press conference, they condemned the campaign as malicious and demanded the government put a halt to it.