LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday issued notices to the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) and Maryam Nawaz, daughter of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, on a petition seeking contempt proceedings against the latter for uttering ‘outrageous’ remarks against judges of the Supreme Court.

Amina Malik of the Civil Society Network had filed the petition in reference to recent tweets of Ms Maryam allegedly against the judiciary.

Petitioner’s counsel Azhar Siddique told the court that Maryam and her father had been using contemptuous language since the commencement of trial in accountability court as directed by the Supreme Court in Panama case.

He said Maryam had been trying to defame the institution of judiciary, which amounted to clear contempt of court. He said it was the duty of Pemra to stop airing of contemptuous statements given by Maryam but the authority miserably failed to do so acted partisan.

Advocate Siddique argued that the judiciary had jurisdiction over all issues of judicial nature and exclusive authority to decide whether an issue of political or non-political submitted for its decision.

He argued that there shall not be any inappropriate or unwarranted interference in judicial process, nor judicial decisions or observations passed by the courts could be subjected to criticism and maneuvering on the media as Maryam had been doing.

The lawyer asked the court to issue a notice to the respondent under contempt of court charges and also punish her under the law.

Justice Shahid Karim issued notices to the respondents for Dec 20.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2017