From:

Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry,

Former Chief Justice of Pakistan

To
Mr. Imran Khan,
Chairman, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI)

Notice u/s 8 of the Defamation Ordinance, 2002

I, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, serve you with the following
notice in unequivocal terms:-
1. That I was born, brought up and got education in
Quetta, Province of Balochistan. I maintained unblemished
academic record and earned good reputation as a practicing
lawyer. In recognition of my professional record, I was appointed
as Advocate General, Balochistan and subsequent thereto as
Judge as well as Chief Justice of High Court of Balochistan. Being
qualified, I was elevated as Judge of the Supreme Court of
Pakistan on my turn as well as on merits. I entered in the office
of the Chief Justice of Pakistan on 30
th
June, 2005 and served
this institution till the date of my superannuation i.e.
12.12.2013.
2. That I devoted my life to promoting the rule of law,
supremacy of Constitution and independence of the judiciary.
The struggle/efforts made by me were recognized at national as
well as international level, and I was conferred/honoured with
following awards:-
(i) Lawyer of the Year for 2007 by National
Law Journal, published in United States.
(ii) Honorary Degree of Doctorate of Law by
the Nova Southeastern University.
(iii) New York City Bar Honorary Membership
(iv) Medal of Freedom by Harvard Law School
(HLS)
(v) First Life time Achievement Award by the
Karachi Tax Bar Association.
2
(vi) International Jurists Award, 2012 from
Rt. Hon. Lord Phillips, President of
Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
(vii) Life Time Achievement Award by the
Sindh High Court Bar Association.

It is to be noted that the Harvard Law School (HLS) awarded
Medal of Freedom to me with the recitation that Presented to
Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry distinguished lawyer and
judge, through your courage, conviction, and steadfast
commitment to the independence of the judiciary, you
stand as a model to those working to maintain the rule of
law in Pakistan and around the world. I am the first
Pakistani to be presented with HLS Medal of Freedom, which is
only given to selected personalities for their contributions to
freedom, justice, and equality. Earlier, only two other persons
were awarded this honor. The first was Charles Hamilton
Houston, an African-American lawyer and NAACP Litigation
Director who helped to play a role in dismantling the Jim Crow
laws and helped train future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood
Marshall. Former South African President, Nelson Mandela was
the second recipient of this award.

The Association of the Bar of the City of New York granted
me an honorary membership in the association on 17
th

November, 2008, recognizing me as a symbol of the
movement for judicial and lawyer independence in
Pakistan.

The Nova Southeastern University conferred upon me the
degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa. The Honorary Degree
Citation of 10
th
May, 2008 recited, inter alia, as under: -

The rule of law, the foundation of democracy,
survives only when a nations citizens
recognize its importance and, when necessary,
defend it. You and your Pakistani bench and
bar colleagues bravely and tenaciously
proclaimed the importance of the rule of law
and vigorously defended it.

Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, you have
inspired lawyers and lay people throughout the
3
world. In recognition of your remarkable
efforts, the trustees of Nova Southeastern
University are proud to award you the
Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws with all of
its rights and privileges.

The International Council of Jurists (ICJ) conferred the
prestigious and world-renowned International Jurists Award -
2012 to me in recognition of my contribution in the field of
administration of justice.
It is clear from the above material that my efforts for
administration of justice, rule of law and independence of
judiciary have been recognized all over the world.
3. That a massive movement was launched throughout
the country from 9
th
March 2007 to 20
th
July, 2007, followed by
second phase of it, commencing from 3
rd
November, 2007. I, in
my capacity as a Chief Justice, along with my brother Judges of
the Supreme Court and the High Courts, struggled for a
considerably long period with unflinching support of the legal
fraternity, political workers, civil society, media, students,
labourers and all other segments of the society. Our struggle
was around a one point agenda: we were united in our
conviction that Pakistan must be governed by the Constitution of
Pakistan. Any instrument issued by an individual simply on the
strength of their might and power cannot be allowed to rule this
country. The principles of rule of law must be adhered to without
discrimination . Ultimately, with the help of Allah Almighty, the
objects noted above were achieved successfully. As a
consequence whereof, democratic order under the Constitution
has been established, a duly elected government completed its
tenure and power was peacefully handed over to the next
government, elected after the general elections held on 11
th

May, 2013. The system provided under the Constitution is bound
to continue as Supreme Court, in one of its judgments reported
as Sindh High Court Bar Association v. Federation of Pakistan
(PLD 2009 SC 879), while interpreting the Constitution, on
having declared all the actions to be un-constitutional, ultra-
vires the Constitution and consequently being illegal and of no
4
legal effect, has effectively closed all doors for aspiring
adventurers to rule this country beyond the ambit of the
Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
4. That in 2009, the National Judicial (Policy Making)
Committee (NJPMC) comprising the Chief Justice of Pakistan and
the Chief Justices of the respective High Courts, constituted
under the National Judicial (Policy Making) Committee
Ordinance, 2002, followed the principle of separation of powers
of the Judiciary from the Executive and decided that in future
the judiciary would avoid its involvement in the conduct of
elections, as it distracts the judicial officers from professional
duty and complaints of corrupt practices tarnish the image of
judiciary. But before the announcement of general elections of
2013 all the stake holders through Election Commission of
Pakistan resolved that Chief Justice of Pakistan may be
requested to consider the desirability of appointing District &
Sessions Judges as District Returning Officers (DROs) and
Additional District & Sessions Judges/Senior Civil Judges/Civil
Judges as Returning Officers (ROs). Thus a letter dated 15
th

October, 2012, addressed to the Registrar of Supreme Court,
was presented to me by Chief Election Commissioner (Mr. Justice
Fakharuddin G. Ibrahim) personally. The NJPMC in its meeting
dated 3
rd
November, 2012 sought explanation of Election
Commission on some of the points. Thereafter, in its meeting
dated 17
th
November, 2012, the NJPMC, after having gone
through the explanations furnished by the Secretary Election
Commission of Pakistan, decided as under:-
After having gone through the replies
furnished and explanation/elaboration thereof;
by the Secretary, Election Commission of
Pakistan, the Committee observed that though
overall responsibility of holding election in a
free and fair manner is the constitutional
mandate of the Election Commission of
Pakistan but to achieve this object the Election
Commission needs institutional
support/strength. Therefore, in supreme
national interest the Committee agreed to
grant permission for involvement of judiciary in
the election process that too for only one time
during the forthcoming General Election and
5
decided to provide services of adequate
number of judicial officers to the Election
Commission of Pakistan for their appointment
as District Returning Officers and Returning
Officers.
5. After general elections of May, 2013, your political
party (PTI) succeeded to the extent of constituencies wherein
your candidates were declared successful. Many of the
candidates, who could not win invoked jurisdiction of the Election
Tribunals, constituted under Representation of People Act, 1976
for redressal of their grievances.
6. That as a Chief Justice of Pakistan it was my duty to
protect and defend the judicial officers against illegal,
unwarranted and premature allegations, particularly hurled by
you in your press conference dated 26
th
July, 2013, wherein you
used malicious, slanderous and disparaging language against
judiciary. Astonishingly, without any basis or evidence, you
started giving slanderous statements, time and again, that the
learned ROs were involved in rigging the elections. Such absurd
allegations were initially ignored as an exercise of judicial
restraint. But soon it became clear that these were not wayward
remarks; you had embarked upon a concerted campaign to
defame the judiciary of Pakistan, inasmuch as you started using
words like against ROs. Thus, acting on the note of the
Registrar, on 31
st
July, 2013, I passed the following order:-
7. Office note perused. Prima facie, it seems
that he (Imran Khan) has started a deliberate
campaign to scandalize the Court and bring judges
into hatred, ridicule or contempt. Thus, his above
acts call for action for contempt of court under
Article 204 of the Constitution read with section 3
of the Contempt of Court Ordinance, 2003.
Therefore, notice be issued to him to appear on
2.8.2013 and explain as to why proceedings as
envisaged by above provisions of the Constitution
and law be not initiated against him. Notice be also
issued to the learned Attorney General for
Pakistan.
7. That you must recall that you appeared before the
Supreme Court of Pakistan along with your counsel and also
addressed the learned Bench seized with the matter, personally.
The contents of your submissions, noted in detailed order
released on 9
th
October, 2013, which are reported as In Re:
6
Contempt Proceedings Against Imran Khan, Chairman PTI (PLD
2014 SC 367), read as under:-
7. After the conclusion of arguments of
learned Sr. ASC, with the permission of Court,
alleged contemnor Imran Khan, also came at
the rostrum and made his submissions on
same lines. In unequivocal terms he made
statement in open Court that he holds highest
regard and respect for the Judiciary as an
important institution and third pillar of the
State, which fact is manifest from his past as
well as present conduct and that the use of
word attributed to him during the
press conference held on 26.7.2013, was never
meant to abuse or show disrespect to anyone,
even the District Returning Officers and the
Returning Officers, but it was used in the sense
of unbecoming, rather than shameful or
disgraceful. He further assured that he is
committed to the supremacy of the Judiciary
as an independent and highly respected
institution, therefore, in future too there will be
no such occasion when this Court will find him
attributing any derogatory or scandalous
remarks against this institution. More so, as he
understands well that in every democratic
country it is extremely necessary that judiciary
as an institution should be allowed to function
independently, in a most respectable and
smooth manner without being made
controversial so that the public at large may
have full confidence on this institution and that
he himself has full faith and confidence on this
institution, particularly, upon the present day
Judiciary, which has demonstrated its courage
and independence in number of important
cases decided in the recent past.

8. That after the general elections of 2013 you
issued/filed following documents:-
(a) White Paper;
(b) Number of petitions filed by the losing candidates of
your party before the Election Commission and the
Election Tribunals;
(c) Reply filed by you to contempt notice issued by the
Supreme Court;
(d) Submissions made by you before the Supreme
Court; and
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(e) Civil Misc. Application, in Civil Review Petition No. 91
of 2011, filed in Supreme Court.
In all of these documents, you never raised even a single
allegation of any kind against me. Rather, as mentioned above,
when you appeared before the Supreme Court, you assured its
Bench that you are committed to the supremacy of the Judiciary
as an independent and highly respected institution, therefore, in
future too there will be no such occasion when this Court will find
him attributing any derogatory or scandalous remarks against
this institution.

9. That I laid down robes of office of Chief Justice on
12
th
December, 2013. Subsequent thereto you started using
slanderous, malicious and preposterous language against me in
TV programs and by delivering speeches in public meetings and
press-conferences, alleging that I was involved in the rigging of
the elections with the object of favouring a particular political
party. Transcription of some of your speeches/interviews is given
hereinbelow:-
Speech at Islamabad on 25.04.2014
" :

8
6

Press-Conference on 02.05.2014

Speech at Faisalabad on 25.05.2014
:

Interview on Express News Channel, with Shahzaib Khanzada in
the program, To the Point on 24.06.2014

Speech at Bahawlapur on 27.06.2014






In one of your statements elsewhere, you went so far as to
equate me with the proverbial Indian Umpire who is alleged to
9
favour one of the teams dishonestly. Your allegations of electoral
fraud, if they are true, do not impugn me alone. Your allegations
indirectly impugn other members of the bench as well, who were
also hearing the case. In that sense, it also constitutes contempt
of Court. In any case, to cause me further damage by way of
defamation, these frivolous allegations were again repeated by
you at Bahawalpur in a public meeting dated 27
th
June, 2014, as
noted above. Your said utterances during which a crowd present
over there, due to your such defamatory utterances, shouted in
a loud voice, Shame-Shame, were not only televised on
electronic media but also published in some sections of the print
media.
10. In continuation of your above willful slanderous
campaign by using slanderous language in the public meeting at
Bahawalpur, referred to hereinabove, you said that Iftikhar
Chaudhry has very cheaply sold himself in exchange for
favouring the PML(N) in the general election of 2013 by having
his son inducted in the Balochistan Investment Board. This
allegation too is not only malevolently incorrect and baseless to
your knowledge, but also stoops to level of the indecent.
11. That I avoided reacting to your excesses because as
per my judicial training, I believe in exercising self restraint and
tolerance in personal matters,. Yet, on 24
th
and 27
th
June, 2014,
as noted above, you crossed all bounds of civility. Relevant
extracts of your spoken words have been reproduced above. It is
clear that you have falsely and maliciously accused me of
committing a crime of unimaginable proportions in no uncertain
words. You went to the extent of perniciously attributing to me
some allegedly shady role in tandem with a certain Media Group,
knowing fully well that your said allegation too was totally false
and motivated. You did not stop there. You went so far as to
publicly demand action against me under Article 6 of the
Constitution. Coming from a parliamentarian, such sensationalist
assertions are especially unwarranted and uncalled-for and on
the face of it smack of endemic malafides. It seems that you
have been doing all this to deliberately, falsely and maliciously
damage my reputation and the good name which I have earned
10
as a result of hard work and struggle for the rule of law
spreading over decades, without any respect for the truth. You
have severely harmed my reputation in front of all the right-
thinking people of this country. I am now left with no other
option except to proceed against you under the law and
vindicate my reputation.
12. That you should also know that I, while sitting on the
Bench with my colleagues, handed judgments independently,
without fear or favour and without compromising my integrity. It
is evident from the judgments pronounced by me as a member
of Bench, that I acted against many dominant and influential
persons, and mafias. As a result of those judgments a huge
amounts of public money was recovered and responsible persons
are facing trial in the Courts of law. But your mailiciously false,
baseless and politically motivated allegations of my involvement
in rigging of Elections have badly damaged the reputation that
accrued to me through decades of honest hard work.
13. Perhaps, in making these baseless allegations, you wanted
to extract revenge from the Court for not getting relief in respect
of four select electoral Constituencies, where you alleged rigging
had taken place. What you do not seem to realize is that
independent courts do not act on anyones whims and fancies.
The Courts are bound by the law and the constitution. Perhaps
you had hoped that your political might would allow you to
extract forced justice from the Supreme Court. But you forgot
that in a civilized society, no matter how high and mighty a
petitioner may be, he cannot extract forced justice. Dirty
tactics like slandering cannot intimidate judges who possess
moral courage.
Since you have taken an oath of allegiance to the
Constitution, I presume that you are somewhat familiar with its
provisions, particularly the provisions pertaining to election
disputes after polling. You may perhaps be aware of an Article
225 which creates a bar in this regard on the jurisdiction of other
courts. IN fact, this Article is couched in negative terms and
ordains that No election to a House or Provincial Assembly shall
11
be called in question except by an election petition presented to
such tribunal and in such manner as may be determined by Act
of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament). You should also be aware that
in this respect the Majlis-e-Shoora(Parliament) has promulgated
the Representation of Peoples Act, 1976 which provides for an
Election Tribunal to deal exclusively with all cases where any
such election is called in question.
14. That it is noted with great surprise that while issuing
your false and defamatory statement you deliberately and
maliciously ignored the fact that the Chief Justice of Pakistan is
not responsible for appointing DROs and and ROs etc. for
elections. As you are well aware the DROs and ROs are members
of the District Judiciary which comes under the administrative
control of Provincial High Courts. Except for the Chief Justices of
the respective High Courts, no one can depute Judicial Officers
for election duty. Thus, your allegation against me of rigging in
Elections is not only deliberately and maliciously untrue but also
fundamentally absurd. Clearly, your allegations serve no purpose
except maligning me.
15. That you should remember that one cannot blow hot
and cold in the same breath. While on the one had you are
leveling grave allegations against the elections process,
conducted by DROs and ROs, and at the same time your own
colleagues, who have been declared successful in Elections as
members of National and Provincial Assemblies, particularly in
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, have expressed no grievance against any
judicial officer. On the basis of the same elections process which
you accuse me to have fixed, you are yourself happily ruling the
Province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as party head. Coming from
are a willing beneficiary of these elections, these allegations
smack of a highly hypocritical and selective approach. I have no
doubt that this selectivity and these allegations about my
conduct and that of some of the ROs are clearly based on some
ulterior motives and political gimmickry.
16. That you, being a public figure, should have be even
more wary of impugning the office of Chief Justice of Pakistan.
12
Yet, you have conveyed through spoken words, highly
defamatory remarks against me, which have caused injury to my
reputation. And you have done this without offering any proof or
evidence. Identical slanderous remarks were repeated time and
again. At one occasion the reason you have given for your
allegation is that I chaired meetings of ROs before the polling.
You should know that in the background noted above, the
Judicial Officers were allowed to participate in the election for
one time only and that this was not a decision of the Chief
Justice of Pakistan but rather a decision of the NJPMC comprising
all the Chief Justices of the superior courts. Thereafter, meetings
were held in all the provincial headquarters, including Peshawar
(KPK) where your party has formed the provincial government,
as well as one or two other places (Hyderabad, Sindh), which
were convened along with the Chief Justices and other Judges of
respective High Courts as well as the District & Sessions Judges.
The only purpose of this exercise was to ensure that elections
are conducted in the country honestly, justly, fairly and in
accordance with law. I am sure you are aware that it is quite
normal for all the heads of the institutions including Civil
Servants and Army, as patrons-in-Chief to offer words of support
to their subordinates, when they are engaged in a demanding
task. In addressing the honourable members of the District
Judiciary, who are the backbone of the judicial system, I did
nothing different and nothing unusual. To charge those hundreds
of judges for rigging using this single public address is
preposterous. It only shows that you have not a sliver of real
evidence to support your outrageous claims. Can you show a
single document or a single statement wherein I asked the ROs
to help any candidate or political party? Definitely not. Then
what is your object in raising objections with regard to
addressing the ROs?
18. That I am sure you also realize that involving the
judiciary including the ROs, who are Judicial Officers, in alleged
rigging runs contrary to those prohibitory provisions of the
Constitution under which judiciary is not be defamed.
13
19. That as noted hereinabove, in the case titled In Re:
Contempt Proceedings Against Imran Khan, Chairman PTI (ibid)
the Supreme Court of Pakistan has observed that politicians are
expected to use more decent and guarded language and have
to be more careful in the selection of words in public gathering
or press-conferences so as to show their intellect, majority of
mind and wisdom qua respect to various national institutions,
and to present themselves, as role model for the society at
large. But in spite of your own commitment made during your
submissions, wherein you said that, use of word
attributed to [you] during the press conference held on 26
th
July,
2013, was never meant to abuse or show disrespect to any one,
even the District Returning Officers and the Returning Officers,
but it was used . Inasmuch as, you assured the Court that
you are committed to the supremacy of the judiciary as an
independent and highly respected institution, therefore, in future
too, there will be no such occasion when this Court will find
[you] attributing any derogatory or scandalous remarks against
this institution. But unfortunately, you have again started
repeating indecent words against the Judiciary, DROs and ROs,
etc., and alleged their involvement in the so called rigging. Do
you not recall that you had made a commitment before the
learned Supreme Court not to use such language in future? Now
it is for you to decide whether you are a man of your words or
just believe in loose talk.
20. Your nefarious designs in causing injury to my
reputation is nothing but to lower my status in the eyes of not
only the international community but also the civil society, legal
fraternity, general public, etc., as they all had great respect for
my efforts for the independence of judiciary in the country.
22. That the above-mentioned press-
conferences/speeches have been made decidedly and
calculatedly by you with the underlying mischief of harassing me
and my family members and you have succeeded in damaging
my reputation and image. Your leveling false allegations against
me has caused me immeasurable mental as well as physical
anguish to my family members and lowered my reputation in the
14
society, amongst acquaintances, friends, relatives and general
public.
23. That I am thus entitled to damages for causing
defamation to my well recognized reputation due to your spoken
words from time to time and mental torture, harassment, agony,
humiliation, etc., which I and my family members have suffered
and are undergoing at present because of wrongful acts on your
part.
24. That no amount of damages can adequately
compensate me for the loss that your mischievous and false
statements have caused to me, or to the institution of Pakistans
judiciary, or to the people of Pakistan who are the ultimate
custodians of both the judiciary and the electoral process.
However, I feel compelled to seek legal recourse against you
because I believe strongly that our country should be governed
by the rule of law and that my hard-earned reputation must
remain protected. Adventurers like you who casually assault the
reputations of innocents for gaining political mileage must not be
allowed to get away with impunity. This is why I have decided to
invoke the law of defamation against your maliciously false,
motivated and reckless statements. I claim from you in damages
a token sum of Rs. 15 billions only; and another Rs.5 billion only
as damages for mental agonies, torture, harassment,
humiliation, etc., caused to me as well as my family. Ulitmately,
the respect and honour that Allah Almighty has, in His
munificence, bestowed upon me cannot be quantified in these
terms, nor can a person like you ever succeed in depriving me of
what Allah Almighty has bestowed. Yet I am claiming this token
sum only to publicly vindicate my innocence. Let me also tell you
that I have no desire to use the damages that shall be recovered
from you for my personal gain. This sum, once recovered, shall
be dedicated to an honourable cause, for the furthering of a
national institution and for the welfare of the downtrodden
sections of our society.
25. Please take notice of this under Section 8 of the
Defamation Ordinance, 2002. I may withdraw my claim if you
15
willingly tender an unconditional apology or you agree to pay the
damages as quantified hereinabove within a period of fourteen
(14) days. Otherwise I would have no option except to bring a
civil action against you before the competent forum in
accordance with law. I also reserve my right to initiate other civil
and criminal proceedings against you, in accordance with the
law, both inside and outside the jurisdiction of Pakistan, if
unconditional apology is not tendered by you.





______________________________

Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry,
Former Chief Justice of Pakistan

House No.222, Street 50,
F-10/4, Islamabad


July the 24
th
, 2014






Mr. Imran Khan
Chairman,
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf