Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday disqualified the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) leader Tallal Chaudry for five years on charges of contempt of the court under Article 204 of the Constitution.

The SC had taken a sou moto notice over the former state interior minister’s anti-judiciary remarks during a party rally in Jaranwala in January this year.

Previously, the court had ordered him to ensure his presence in the next hearing, now today, the PML-N leader has disqualified for five years.

A three-member bench presided over by the Justice Gulzar Ahmad, sentenced Tallal ’till the rising of the court’, fined Rs0.1 million and a disqualification for five years, which means that he would not be able to hold a public office for the given tenure.

However, Tallal Chaudhry, who had lost the July 25 General Election from Faisalabad’s NA-102 constituency, has a right to file a verdict review petition as the legal experts informed the sources that the verdict is unlikely to reserve yet.

Also read: Talal Chaudry to be charged for contempt of court, says SC

The apex court had initiated contempt proceedings against Chaudry on account of “derogatory and contemptuous speeches/statements” with regard to the court, according to a notification issued on February 2.

In his response to the contempt notice, Chaudhry wrote that scandalising the court or doing anything that tends to bring the court into “hatred, ridicule or contempt is not even the last thing on the respondent’s mind”.

“Whatever has been said might have been taken into account without relevance to the context due to media reporting,” states the response.