SC asked to drop contempt charges against minister
ISLAMABAD: The defence counsel requested the Supreme Court on Friday to exercise judicial restraint by dropping contempt of court charges against Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudhry.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan had taken up the suo motu contempt case over the minister’s alleged derogatory and contemptuous speeches/statements at public gatherings against the apex court, which were also telecast by different television channels.
Senior counsel Kamran Murtaza, who had earlier defended PML-N former senator Nehal Hashmi and is now appearing in court on behalf of Mr Chaudhry, said that it was difficult for him to represent a client in a contempt of court case.
Tallal Chaudhry has been indicted for anti-judiciary outbursts
Earlier also the counsel had requested the court to wait for the detailed judgement in similar contempt proceedings against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, in which the bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had rejected the charges by exercising restraint.
However, Justice Khan asked Mr Murtaza to do his job with an observation that the purpose of the court was to establish the supremacy of law. “Even if somebody throws a shoe at the court it is the solemn duty of the lawyer to defend him,” he added.
On March 31, the court had indicted the minister for his Sept 24 and 27, 2017 anti-judiciary rhetoric considered to be contemptuous and intended to bring the judiciary and the judges into hatred. However, Mr Chaudhry had pleaded not guilty.
Earlier also in a written reply the minister had requested the court to withdraw the contempt charges since he faced no allegation of prejudicing any matter pending before the court. He stated that he honestly believed that he had not uttered anything nor acted in a manner which might be construed as causing obstruction of the process of the court in any way nor had disobeyed any order of the court.
On Friday, the cross-examination of a prosecution witness, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority director monitoring Haji Adam, was completed after which the court postponed further proceedings to April 30 when the prosecution will cross-examine Mr Chaudhry.
The prosecution witness, produced by Additional Attorney General Muhammad Waqar Rana, was directed by the court to provide Mr Murtaza a copy of the compact disc (CD) recording containing the minister’s alleged contemptuous speeches against the judiciary.
The counsel had requested the bench to provide him the CD copy to brush aside the doubts regarding tampering with the transcript of the minister’s speeches.
During the cross-examination, the counsel alleged that the video clip was relied upon as evidence without any verification.
Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2018