SC orders screening of Awan’s ‘contemptuous’ press conference

The Supreme Court on Monday directed its office to make arrangements for playing in the courtroom on March 1, the footage of a press conference held by Dr Babar Awan and other leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) at Press Information Department on December 1, 2011, in which the apex court was ridiculed.
A two-member bench of Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and Justice Ather Saeed heard the contempt of court case against PPP Vice-President Babar Awan.
Ali Zafar, lawyer for Babar Awan, argued that although his client was accused of committing judicial contempt, but in such proceedings the court was like a parent, while the alleged contemnor was similar to an errant child and that was why this contempt jurisdiction was used sparingly the world over and in exceptional circumstances, not by way of punishment.
Citing examples, he said Nawaz Sharif had called Supreme Court judges “Jayala Judges” and announced that he would remove them. He had also accused a chief justice of Pakistan of promoting ‘lotacracy’, yet the Supreme Court had not punished him for contempt on the grounds that such statement was made in the heat of the moment at a press conference which, unlike a written speech, was never premeditated.
He cited examples of several politicians, including Abdul Wali Khan, lawyers, authors, article writers and publishers against whom contempt proceedings were initiated. He said Wali Khan had alleged that the judiciary had blackened its face. He stated that senior lawyers like Akram Sheikh, Dr Basit, Khalid Anwar and others had also allegedly committed serious contempt against the judiciary, even accusing it of becoming political or dishonest, and yet the Supreme Court of Pakistan had discharged the contempt against all of them on the ground that the latest trend was that since “freedom of expression” was a fundamental right under which everyone was entitled to free speech and fair criticism, it was not the judiciary’s role to gag people.
He said his client had held a press conference of a political nature, which was directed against Nawaz Sharif, the leader of the opposition, not against the judiciary. He read the statement of Babar Awan submitted in the court, in which Awan had stated that he had the highest respect, honour and regard for the judiciary and since the bar and bench were part of one chariot and defamation of one would cause a loss to the other, he never committed any contempt nor intended to be disrespectful to the courts. In his written reply to the contempt charge, Awan stressed that as far as the death sentence of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was concerned, it was an emotional issue with PPP workers and public at large and he was certainly aggrieved by the judgment in the said case and would continue to fight against the judgment.