ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the Islamabad police to produce Faisal Raza Abidi, a former senator from Karachi, before it on May 3 in a contempt case initiated against him for using abusive language against the judiciary.

“Where is Faisal Abidi who abused the judiciary?” asked Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar during the hearing of the case by a three-judge SC bench.

The contempt proceedings against Mr Abidi were initiated for his outburst against the judiciary during a talk show called News@8 aired on April 12 on Channel-5 in which the former senator caste aspersions on the top judge.

During the proceedings, the court declined an unconditional apology tendered by the owner of Channel-5 and instead issued a show-cause notice for telecasting the contemptuous programme.

The channel should be ashamed of running such a programme, the court regretted, asking if this qualified as freedom of speech. “Did they not check the programme before telecasting it?” the court wondered.

Imtinan Shahid, the chief executive officer of the channel, admitted the mistake before the court and said that they already had tendered the apology and terminated the services of the anchor of the programme.

If it was a mistake then he should file a proper reply to the contempt notice, the court said, asking Mr Shahid was it the way to tender an apology.

The court regretted that the channel had extended the unconditional apology after broadcasting the programme. The judges said they respected Zia Shahid, owner of the Khabrain Group, but the court was scandalised through former senator Abidi.

In addition to the contempt notice, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority also issued a show-cause notice to Interact (Pvt) Ltd (Channel-5) on April 13 under Section 20(b)(c) of the Pemra Ordinance, 2002, and relevant rules for casting aspersions on the judiciary.

The notice had asked why under the relevant laws the talk show should not be prohibited from being broadcast and why a fine of Rs1 million should not be imposed against the programme or the satellite television licence be not suspended.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2018