State Minister Talal Chaudhry served show-cause notice in contempt case
- By Web Desk -
- Feb 06, 2018
ISLAMABAD: A three-judge Supreme Court bench on Tuesday issued a show-cause notice to the PML-N leader and State Minister Talal Chaudhry to explain why he may not be proceeded against for committing contempt of court by making contemptuous speeches against the judiciary.
Headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal, the bench directed him to respond to the notice within a week.
The minister accompanied by Senator Pervez Rasheed appeared before the bench in response to its earlier notice.
He sought three weeks to submit his response in the case. He said he needed some time to hire a lawyer so as to prepare the response.
On this, Justice Afzal remarked why you should not be given three years for the purpose. How much time it takes to hire an advocate, he asked.
The bench rejected the request of the minister and gave him a week to come up with his response.
On Thursday, Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar took suo motu notice of the contemptuous statements given by the minister against the judiciary.
The PML-N president Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and a number of party leaders have been heaping scorn on the judiciary since July 28, 2017 when the apex court sent the former premier packing.
Lately, 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.”
The suo motu notice came on the heels of the Supreme Court verdict, sentencing Nehal Hashmi, a PML-N politician, to a month in prison and barring him from holding public office for the next five years as punishment for his contemptuous speech.