SC issues contempt notice to Jang Group for fallacious reporting

ISLAMABAD: Taking notice of a news report, the special bench of Supreme Court overseeing the implementation of Panamagate verdict on Monday noted that Jang Group of Newspapers involved in the fallacious reporting, ARY News reported.

Terming a news story published in English daily ‘The News International’ as ‘direct contempt of court’, the three-member special bench – headed by Ejaz Afzal Khan – issued notices to Jang Group’s Editor-in-Chief Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman and Publisher Mir Javed Rehman while seeking clarification on the matter within seven days.

Summoning a Jang Group’s reporter Sohail Khan at rostrum, the bench queried the motive behind inaccurate reporting.

On the occasion, Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan remarked that the media group is consistently reporting news stories lacking accuracy.

“This is direct contempt of court,” Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan remarked while issuing contempt of court notice to Jang Group of Newspapers.

The notice was issued on a news story titled: “Panama JIT ‘doesn’t find PM guilty,’ but his sons”. The story under same headline was also published in Urdu version in daily Jang.

The story quoting the sources close to Panamagate Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing the money trail of Sharif family’s offshore properties, claimed that JIT has not held Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif responsible of any wrongdoing.

“The JIT has cast some doubts about the prime minister in absence of any reasonable evidence but at no place has held the Prime Minister responsible of doing any illegal thing,” the paper reported.

The hearing was later adjourned till July 17.