ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday deferred the indictment of State Minister for Interior Talal Chaudhry on charges of committing contempt of court by criticizing judges.
The bench, headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, was hearing a contempt of court case against the minister.
His lawyer requested the judges to hear his arguments before framing charges against his client to which they replied they had to indict him today, warning against causing any delay in the case.
The counsel said the case in hand didn’t involve any violation of fundamental rights, but revolved around reported contemptuous remarks directed at individual judges.
Justice Maqbool Baqar, a member of the bench, remarked this was not the case of any individual, but an institution.
The lawyer asked the judges to adjourn the case till tomorrow when he said he would forward his arguments.
The bench supplied a copy of the charge-sheet against the minister to a federal law officer to examine it and adjourned the hearing till Thursday.
Previously, the minister had submitted a reply, maintaining that he was never indulged in mocking the judiciary, nor could he even think of committing contempt of court.
He claimed that his statement about the judiciary was taken out of context. He said he had never wittingly or unwittingly acted in a manner, which can be deemed as contempt of court.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar had taken a suo motu notice of the contemptuous statements given by the minister against the judiciary.
At PML-N’s Jarianwala public meeting, Talal Chaudhry bitterly criticized the judiciary, saying: “There was a time when the Kaabah was full of idols. Today, the judiciary is also full of PCO judges.”
He had asked the party chief to throw “those judges out because they will not do justice.”