Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Observing that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Nehal Hashmi was treating the contempt of court proceedings against him lightly, the Supreme Court of Pakistan reluctantly granted him 11 more days to submit his reply.

Nehal Hashmi, whose video of ‘contemptuous’ and ‘threatening’ speech towards judiciary went viral last week, had attracted the attention of Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar who took cognizance of the matter and summoned him to appear in person. During the previous hearing, the three-judge implementation bench, in a grilling tone had asked the lawmaker to submit his reply over contempt notice. The bench had appointed Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf as prosecutor.

Headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, the bench on Monday took up the matter for hearing. Hashmi, who appeared before the bench on last hearing with shivering nerves, ‘confidently’ contended that he would contest the case instead of tendering apology.

Before starting arguments, he asked bench’s permission to say some words, with further request to play his complete speech in the court room. Unlike the previous hearing, wherein the court had given a major dose of snub to the federal government by comparing it to the Sicilian Mafia, the bench restrained itself from passing any adverse observations. However, the court declined his request for playing speech clip in open court. The bench observed that playing of the video was not necessary and asked Hashmi about his reply. Hashmi responded that neither he was provided record by the AGP office nor his speech was run with full context. He said that corrupt elements were present in every institution of the country and his speech aimed at them. He informed the bench that no lawyer was willing to fight his case. He contended that he himself belonged to the legal fraternity and that he did not appear before the judges who had taken oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) for over one year. He added that his house was attacked but he always stood with supremacy of law and independence of judiciary. Justice Khan told Hashmi to submit in written whatever he wanted to say.

Hashmi requested the bench that his case may be listed for hearing after Eidul Fitr as he wanted to perform Umrah. Justice Ijazul Ahsan observed that it seemed the case was being taken lightly as the reply should have been filed by Monday. The top court asked the PML-N lawmaker to submit his response to the show-cause notice on June 16.