Islamabad(May 03, 2018): Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Saqib Nisar refused to hear contempt case against Faisal Raza Abidi and shifted on case to another bench on Thursday.
As the hearing went under way, Abidi appeared in court after having been summoned by the chief justice over his ‘anti-judiciary’ remarks on a private television channel.
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The footage of the show was aired in court, after which Chief Justice Saqib Nisar remarked that Abidi has yet to apologize.
Abidi’s counsel stated that they have submitted two requests in the apex court but the bench rejected them, observing that the method of apology used by Abidi’s counsel is not appropriate.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan inquired if Abidi’s counsel has a licence to practice law at the Supreme Court.
The bench also rejected the counsel’s plea to shift the hearing to Karachi.
However, the court approved his plea of sending the contempt case to another bench.
Talking to the newsmen after the hearing, Faisal Raza Abidi alleged that the CJP is destroying country.
Earlier, Faisal Raza Abidi reached Supreme Court to appear in the contempt of court proceeding along with his counsel, Amjad Bukhari.
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It is worthwhile to mention here that on April 18, Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had ordered to arrest former Senator Faisal Raza Abidi.
Hearing a contempt case against Abidi, a three-member bench of Supreme Court headed by the CJP remarked: “Faisal Raza Abidi should be brought before the court at the next hearing”.
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Chief Justice Nisar remarked: “The private television channel should be ashamed. Is this what freedom of expression entails? Had the channel not seen the programme before the show was aired?”
Responding to this, the lawyer of the private channel shared that the channel accepts its fault for airing the content, the lawyer shared that the channel has issued an official apology, adding that the anchorperson of the show has been fired as well.
Over this, the CJP observed: “Is this how you apologise? You do a programme and then apologise. We don’t accept your apology.”
Earlier, the Supreme Court took suo moto notice of the alleged anti-judiciary remarks made by former senator Faisal Raza Abidi during a programme on private channel.
Meanwhile, The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) has imposed a fine of Rs1 million on private channel and also placed a three-month ban on its programme .
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