ISLAMABAD: A Supreme Court judge directed officials concerned on Monday to find out who had placed defamatory and critical posters and banners against him in the city.

Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja, who resumed hearing on a petition filed by Geo TV, read out for four times the banners which said: “Mir Shakil ki Behen Justice Jawwad ki Bhabhi; Bhabhi Muddayi aur Daiwar judge; Faisla Aap Samajh Saktay Hain (Mir Shakil’s sister is the sister-in-law of Justice Jawwad; sister-in-law is complainant and brother-in-law judge; you can anticipate the verdict). The banners have purportedly been placed by Farzand-i-Islam, an unknown organisation.

Justice Khawaja said he never treated Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman, the owner of Geo TV, as a close relative because neither he had ever visited him nor Mir Rahman had come to his house.

Showing the pictures of the banners and posters against him and images of a vilification campaign in social media, the judge said he wondered how such banners could spring up overnight in the heart of the capital, even in the red zone supposed to be a high security area, under the nose of police, intelligence agencies and the shadow of CCTV cameras.

The federal government cut a sorry picture of helplessness, he deplored and said that whoever was behind this was playing with fire the consequence of which would be dangerous and far reaching.

The court asked Interior Secretary Shahid Khan and Director General of Intelligence Bureau Aftab Sultan to find out who had put up the banners. The officials sought time and said they had no concrete evidence but could unravel the mystery in a day or two. The court asked them to come up with the information on Wednesday.

Justice Khawaja said: “It has become a jurisprudential question whether institutions like the judiciary could ever function freely and independently on the face of derogatory and defamatory banners like these affixed at almost all the lampposts of the capital city.”

But, he said, as a judge he was not bothered and would never succumb to scurrilous and defamatory campaign against him.

Justice Khawaja requested senior lawyer S.A. Rehman to read out the verses from Surah Nisa and Al-Baqarah of Holy Quran and Hadith to try to establish that besides the code of conduct for judges, the Holy Scripture also ordained a judge to dispense justice even if a close relative was before him.

He cited the verses of Hafiz Sheerazi and Shah Hussain to establish that the one who submitted himself to the will of Allah Almighty could be truly called a free man.

He recited a Quranic verse which said that honour and disgrace were in the hands of Allah.

He said if persons could place banners without any check, forces inimical to the state could also enter the capital city to carry out their nefarious designs.

The court disposed of the petition of Geo TV when Advocate Ibrahim Satti, representing the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), assured it that the regulator would abide by the terms set in the Aug 13, 2012 Supreme Court judgment on a similar case jointly filed by ARY and Geo TV. The verdict had held that cable operators had no authority to block or reshuffle any private TV channel unless punitive action in the shape of cancelling of its licence had been taken by Pemra.

Senior counsel Akram Sheikh, who was representing Geo TV, said he was satisfied with the stand taken by Pemra.

He told reporters that the court had issued a notice to Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt for Wednesday on the petition seeking the court’s intervention to stop a hate campaign launched against Geo TV by different media outlets.

The court asked ARY TV anchor Mubashir Lucman to wait for the decision to be made by the chief justice on his application seeking transfer of the case to another bench.

The highlight of Monday’s proceeding was an order dictated by Justice Khawaja in Urdu. While the order deplored that the national language was not being promoted in violation of Articles 28 and 251 of the Constitution to the disadvantage of the common citizens it almost repeated whatever he had said on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Bar Council has taken notice of the abhorrent attempts made by certain media outlets to malign the judiciary, particularly certain judges, and called upon the government to launch an inquiry into the distasteful attacks on judiciary.

The council, in a resolution, vowed to uphold freedom of expression and independence of judiciary.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2014