ISLAMABAD: The Sup­reme Court on Thursday indicted Minister of State for Interior Mohammad Tallal Chaudhry of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for his anti-judiciary tirade. The minister, however, pleaded not guilty.

On March 13, another bench of the apex court had framed contempt charges against firebrand PML-N leader and Privatisation Minister Daniyal Aziz for scandalising and bringing into hatred the judges of the top court.

A three-judge SC bench headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan framed the contempt charges against Tallal Chaudhry, ignoring a request by his counsel Advocate Kamran Murtaza not to indict as it would be a blot on the minister’s career.

The court had initiated the contempt proceedings on a suo motu against Mr Chaudhry for his alleged derogatory and contemptuous speeches/statements at public gatherings against the Supreme Court which were also telecast by different television channels.

Advocate Murtaza requested the court to wait for a detailed judgement in similar contempt proceedings against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique in which an SC bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had rejected the charges against them by exercising restraint.

The counsel also submitted a written request highlighting that the apex court had already exercised judicial restraint and magnanimity in a 2014 case against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan by discharging the show-cause notice issued to him.

He said that since the cases against Mr Sharif and Khawaja Rafique were closely related to and of similar nature with the instant case, he was placing the same on record for assisting this court in arriving at a just conclusion. These cases were essential for a just and proper adjudication of the matter by the apex court and no one was going to be prejudiced if these were made part of the record, the counsel added.

However, the court assured the counsel that he would be provided ample opportunity of defence and reminded him of instances where contempt of court proceedings were closed despite framing of corruption charges.

Justice Maqbool Baqar, a member of the bench, observed that since every case had its own merit, “we have to see whether those cases to which the counsel has mentioned have similarities with the instant case”.

The court indicted Tallal Chaudhry for his Sept 24 and 27, 2017 anti-judiciary rhetoric considered to be contemptuous and intended to bring the judiciary and judges into hatred.

The court postponed further proceedings to March 27.

Earlier in his written reply, the minister had requested the court to withdraw the contempt charges since he faced no allegation of prejudicing any matter pending before this court. He said he honestly believed that he did not utter anything nor acted in a manner which might be construed as causing obstruction of the process of the court in any way nor any order of the court had been disobeyed.

To scandalise the court or act for bringing the Supreme Court into hatred, ridicule or contempt was not even the last thing on his mind and whatever stated might have been taken into account without relevance to the context due to media reporting, he added.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2018