Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday recorded the statements of two defence witnesses of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry in a contempt of court case against him.

Both the defence witnesses, who testified in favour of Talal Chaudhry, were later cross examined by the additional attorney general, who is a prosecutor in the contempt case.

A three-member bench comprising Justice Gulzar Ahmad, Justice Tariq Masood and Justice Faisal Arab heard the contempt of court case against Talal Chaudhry.

The court directed Kamran Murtaza, senior counsel for Talal Chaudhry, to produce the remaining witnesses on June 19 so that the trial could be concluded.

An official of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) told the court that another witness, Muhammad Tahir, who is the general manager (Operations and Broadcasts) at PEMRA got the court’s notice late, thus could not turn up due to his engagements at the Lahore High Court.

The defence witnesses included, Azkar Ahmad Khan, a resident of Faisalabad and Senator Musaddiq Malik, adviser to the prime minister.

In his testimony, the first witness, Azkar Ahmad, stated that he was present at the January 27, 2018 public meeting of PML-N in Jaranwala. He said Talal made many speeches at that day, but the video of his speeches presented before the court was made by collecting different patches of the speeches and was out of context. He said no speech of Talal had given any impression of contempt of court or any of its judges.

In his testimony, Senator Musaddiq Malik stated Talal delivered many speeches at January 27 public meeting of the PML-N and none of his speeches had any type of impression of contempt of court or its judges. He said the video of his speeches presented before the court was out of context.

They, however, accepted that the statement urging former premier Nawaz Sharif “to throw PCO judges out of court’ was uttered by the PML-N leader. They stated that it was correct that the public meeting in Jaranwala was recorded and telecast by many TV channels.

During the hearing, the judges remarked that would be decided by the court whether Talal Chaudhry had committed contempt of court and its judges in his speeches or not. Later, the court adjourned the hearing until June 19.

Earlier on May 21, Talal Chaudhry had recorded his statement under Section 342 of Code of Criminal Procedure. He had requested the court to withdraw the contempt of court charges against him by not casting doubts on his intentions about the dignity of the court.

He had contended that his January 24, 2018 press talk was edited with mala fide intention and many of his sentences were removed from the actual substance to make it controversial. He had stated that his January 27, 2018 speech was not against any of the judges. He contended that the video of his speech that was kept on record was also edited to spoil the actual and original context of his speech.

Talal was indicted on March 15, 2018. Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar had taken suo motu notice of Talal’s alleged derogatory and contemptuous statements and speeches at PML-N public gatherings against the apex court.

Published in Daily Times, May 25^th 2018.