Supreme Court of Pakistan. — Photo by AP

ISLAMABAD: Disregarding the reservations put forward by the prime minister’s counsel against the bench of judges, the Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing against Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on charges pertaining to contempt of court till tomorrow, March 22, DawnNews reported.

Gilani’s lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan will continue presenting his arguments in court during Thursday’s hearing. The bench has decided to conduct daily hearings from tomorrow.

The seven-member bench, led by Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk and comprising of Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Muhammad Ather Saeed, was heard the case.

Alleging that the bench of seven SC judges had already made up their minds against PM Gilani, Aitzaz argued during the hearing that the bench could not continue hearing the case.

Aitzaz said that, judging from the harsh language used in the ‘six-option’ decision given by the SC on January 10, it appears as if the judges had already decided to punish the prime minister.

The bench, without passing any judgement on Aitzaz’s allegations, made it clear in its remarks that their minds were “not already made up”.

Aitzaz further argued that the court could not proceed on the basis of assumptions as it was a criminal trial and decisions should be made on evidences submitted before the court.

“Do not pay attention to newspaper headlines...criminal cases are not dealt with on the basis of news reports,” he said.

Aitzaz also argued that the prime minister was the only person being held responsible for contempt while both the former attorney general and law secretary had advised Gilani not to write the letter.

Earlier, the prime minister was asked to submit a report about implementation of the judgment by March 21.