ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Interior Muhammad Tallal Chaudhry, who is facing contempt charges, got a little relief from a reluctant Supreme Court on Thursday when his counsel finally managed to get the next hearing date fixed after the Eid holidays.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed was inclined to record the evidence of 15 more defence witnesses out of a total of 17 on Friday after two of the witnesses recorded their testimonies.

But senior lawyer and Vice Chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council Kamran Murtaza, representing Mr Chaudhry, requested the court to adjourn hearing for the next week because he was going to Quetta on Thursday evening. Justice Gulzar Ahmed said that the bench was not available next week and not even the week after that.

“Then adjourn the matter after the Eid holidays,” said the counsel, adding that recording of the evidence of the remaining witnesses would take some time. The judges after consultation agreed to postpone the trial till June 19.

“When the hearing will commence after the break, neither Tallal Chaudhry will be the minister nor the incumbent government will be in office and as such the entire political situation will have changed by then,” commented a senior lawyer.

On Thursday, Senator Musadaq Malik and Israr Ahmed Khan, PML-N member of the National Assembly from Faisalabad, recorded their evidence in which they separately said that it was their impression that Mr Chaudhry had not uttered anything during a public meeting in Jaranwala on Jan 27 which might be construed as derogatory or contemptuous towards the courts or the honourable judges.

Both said that they had reached the venue of the public meeting before the chief guest — former prime minister Nawaz Sharif — and remained there till the gathering concluded.

Kamran Murtaza did the examination in chief of the two witnesses whereas Additional Attorney General (AAG) Muhammad Waqar Rana cross-examined them.

When the court repeatedly reminded Israr Ahmed that he was under oath in which he had invited the wrath of God if he misstated before the court, the counsel said it did not behove of the judges to remind witnesses about their oath.

At the outset, the court was informed that Mohammad Tahir, general manager (operations) of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regula­tory Authority, who had been called by the court for Thursday, could not turn up as he had gone to attend the Lahore High Court proceedings.

Justice Ahmed said Mr Tahir should have sought adjournment from the high court since the Sup­reme Court always had precedence or should have returned from Lahore.

Both witnesses said that because Tallal Chaudhry, one of the key organisers of the public meeting, reached the venue of the gathering before Nawaz Sharif, he spoke at a number of times to fill in the time until the arrival of the chief guest.

When the AAG asked both witnesses whether the alleged contemnor had said that decision of the people’s court had been insulted and that “PCO idols” were present, asking Nawaz Sharif to remove them, Senator Malik stated that he had seen the clips of the speeches of Mr Chaudhry, adding that it was correct that such words were uttered by him, but they were interjected by other things and the controversial remarks had not been made in continuity.

Likewise, Israr Ahmed said he had read the transcript of the speech of Mr Chaudhry and he had said these words, but not continuously and TV channels had merged different parts of his speech. He added that the part of the speech referred in the contempt notice had been made up from different speeches and there was also not a reference to the context.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2018