Daily Times

Islamabad: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the contempt of court application submitted against Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) senator and former interior minister Rehman Malik.

A three-member bench headed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar heard the contempt of court plea submitted against Malik.

Malik’s lawyer, Latif Khosa adopted the stance that the contempt of court’s decision had already been rejected in the inter-court appeal and hence it should be dismissed by the top court.

After hearing the arguments, the CJP dismissed the application. On the dismissal of the plea, Malik said before the court that he had been attending the hearing for the past five years and that he was thankful to the court for ending the matter.

The petitioner, Mehmood Akhtar Naqvi, had adopted the stance that Malik had failed to compensate the government for the benefits utilised during his tenure as a senator despite the top court’s order in the dual nationality case.

The CJP, after the hearing, remarked that he had turned down 55 applications in the chamber and in the next two weeks, he would hear more cases that had never been worked upon by anyone before.

In December 2017, the former interior minister came under the lens of the anti-corruption authorities after a written response submitted by the Ministry of Interior to a question by Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) in the National Assembly, revealed that Malik and top bureaucrats in the Interior Ministry might have violated laws by recruiting 147 people in the Passport Office.

Published in Daily Times, March 22^nd 2018.