ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday summoned office-bearers of the Pakistan Bar Council and the Supreme Court Bar Association to assist it in deciding revocation of the professional licence of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz loyalist and former senator Nehal Hashmi to practice law.

A three-judge SC bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had taken up a contempt of court case against Mr Hashmi for his abusive and derogatory remarks against judges of the superior judiciary soon after his release from jail. The court, however, postponed the framing of contempt of court charges against him to Tuesday.

Mr Hashmi is facing contempt charges for the second time. He was earlier sent to Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail on similar charges on Feb 1 — eight months after his May 28, 2017, outburst in which he appeared to have threatened members of the SC-appointed joint investigation team and the judiciary for probing allegations against ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members stemming from the Panama Papers leaks. The court had sentenced Mr Hashmi to one month in prison with Rs50,000 fine.

On Monday, Mr Hashmi again apologised for his remarks and said he was only repeating what the Adiala jail inmates were saying about the judiciary.

Contempt proceedings against Daniyal adjourned to Friday

But the bench directed the court assistant to play on multimedia the video clips showing his utterances. The chief justice then asked senior counsel Rasheed A. Rizvi and Farogh Naseem to themselves decide the nature of the outburst, asking should the court not cancel Mr Hashmi’s licence.

“The court can forgive conditionally if you say so,” the chief justice told the counsel who admitted that Mr Hashmi’s remarks were not justifiable or something that could be defended though the Sindh High Court Bar Association suggested to the court to show mercy on Mr Hashmi and pardon him because he had tendered an apology.

The court said it would consider the request, but asked heads of the bar council and bar association to appear before it on Tuesday to give their opinions.

The court told Mr Hashmi that he would not be spared because he had abused the judiciary and asked could he use the same words for himself which he chose for the judiciary.

Mr Hashmi regretted that he was ashamed of abusing the judiciary.

The court regretted that Mr Hashmi had spent his jail term in hospital by using heart ailment as an excuse.

Privatisation minister

A different three-judge bench headed by Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh termed firebrand PML-N leader and Privatisation Minister Daniyal Aziz a blue-eyed boy and entitled to all protection of the court.

The bench had taken up a contempt of court case against the minister for making derogatory and contemptuous speeches and statements against the apex court also telecast by different television channels.

The court had on March 13 indicted Mr Aziz for scandalising and bringing into hatred the judges of the top court. He, however, pleaded not guilty.

Additional Attorney General Muhammad Waqar Rana, the prosecution in the contempt case, presented a list of witnesses namely special correspondent of Daily Dunya Sajid Hussain and director general (monitoring) of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority Haji Adam.

But since Advocate Ali Raza, representing the minister, was taken by surprise, the court adjourned the proceedings to Friday with a directive to hand over the list of witnesses to the counsel.

The court acknowledged that the minister had not denied the words he had uttered and assured the counsel that his client would not be prejudiced.

The court also made it clear that it was exercising restraint and asked the additional attorney general that he must remember that he was representing the state and not a particular government.

At the same time, the court also cautioned the minister’s counsel against asking frivolous questions while cross-examining the witnesses.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2018