ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Saturday initiated contempt of court proceedings against a private television channel for airing footage which it described as mischief and a character assassination campaign to cast aspersions on the conduct of a judge.

On Friday, the Din News channel had broadcast a package alleging that a private meeting regarding the Panama Papers case had taken place between Senator Nehal Hashmi of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Justice Amir Hani Muslim, a member of the five-judge bench before which it is pending.

Showing deep concern on the issue, the chief justice ordered the court office to issue contempt notices to the channel’s reporters, anchorperson, producer, news director, management and any other person behind this “mischief”.

The broadcast has been termed a clear case of contempt under Article 204(2-b) of the Constitution, read with Sections 3, 4 and 17 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance, 2003

The case has been fixed for Nov 28 and the respondents have been asked to submit their statements and appear in person.

A court announcement also declared that the news report was totally false, baseless, concocted, stage-managed and a figment of the imagination of the reporter.

“Such misleading stories based on character assassination campaigns and casting aspersion on character and conduct of any dignitary through media trial are condemnable that sensationalise a non-issue,” it said.

The chief justice took notice of the issue on a note from the registrar, based on the transcript and compact disc of the news package aired by the channel.

The note stated that the channel has maliciously tried to malign the judge and brought on the media something which had never happened. This amounted to a dirty attempt to tarnish the image of the Supreme Court, which was extremely damaging for the judiciary as a whole, it said.

The channel had deliberately tried to create sensationalism by claiming that it had succeeded in getting this news exclusively and by doing so it had created suspicion in the general public about an issue of national importance which was sub judice before this court, the note said.

This was a clear case of contempt within the meaning of Article 204(2-b) of the Constitution, read with Sections 3, 4 and 17 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance, 2003, it said.

Further, it was a deliberate attempt to damage the reputation of the august court, as the news package had been uploaded on social media, which had elicited unwarranted comments from the public, it said.

The note said that the contents of the news package were baseless, ill-intended and stage-managed.

The airing of such news on a TV channel about the sub judice matter was nothing but an attempt to malign the institution of judiciary and to bring the apex court and the judges into hatred, ridicule or contempt, it said.

It also tended to prejudice the determination of a high-profile case, the registrar’s note said, adding that, therefore, the news channel had tried to obstruct the judicial proceedings being conducted by larger bench of the court.

Published in Dawn November 20th, 2016