ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday ordered Imran Khan to resubmit his reply before August 28 in a case pertaining to the contempt of court notice issued to the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf (PTI) chief and adjourned the hearing to the said date.

Pakistan’s top court had issued a notice to the PTI chief over his “critical and derogatory” remarks against the judiciary and judges of the apex court. It said that Mr Khan apparently had tried to incite hatred against the apex court in one of his interactions with the media.

A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, was hearing the case today.

During the hearing, Hamid Khan, the counsel for Imran, told the apex court that his client could not even think of committing contempt of court.

Chief Justice Iftikhar asked Hamid whether he had prepared a written response to the contempt of court notice issued against his client.

Hamid submitted a short reply, which said that Khan’s remarks were aimed at the Election Commission of Pakistan and not the Supreme Court.

The bench had termed the counsel's reply as unsatisfactory and adjourned the hearing to 11:30 am.

Later, in a one-page written response submitted to the apex court, Khan reiterated his earlier stance that his remarks were targeting the ECP and not the judiciary.

The PTI chief, in his reply, stated that 45 days had passed since the May 11 elections and no one from the Election Commission of Pakistan was paying any heed to his complaints regarding failure to conduct free and fair elections.

Khan also mentioned the various struggles he had undertaken during the movement for the restoration of the judiciary.