ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday took exception to the publication of fallacious news stories about the Panama Joint Investigation Team (JIT) in newspapers owned by Jang group, observing that they attempted to discredit the court and the Panama probe team, ARY News reported.
A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, heard the contempt of court case against Jang Group’s Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman, Publisher Mir Javed Rehman and the author of the story in question.
While adjourning the proceedings till August 22, the bench gave more time to the group to submit additional replies in the contempt case.
On July 10, the group’s English daily The News had published a story titled “Panama JIT doesn’t find PM guilty, but his sons” a day before the JIT report was made public. The group’s Urdu daily had also carried the same story.
The court had earlier issued notices to the printer, publisher and the reporter of the The News, observing that the publication of the story was contempt of the court.
During hearing on Tuesday, Justice Ijazul Ahsan remarked that an attempt was made to discredit the court and the JIT appointed by it to probe money laundering allegations against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his children.
Addressing Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman, who showed up before the bench in compliance to its notice, Justice Azmat Saeed observed, “the stories about the Panama JIT published in your newspapers proved fallacious.”
During a media interaction when a reporter asked Mir Shakil to comment on court remarks that JIT news published by his media group and its alleged links with the stocks, he replied: “I have not listened these remarks, but if it happened it’s really ridiculous and I will prefer filing a case against the judge who made this statement.”
No one should hurl any allegation against anybody without proofs, he told reporters.
WATCH his statement below:
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