SC reserves judgement in contempt case against Awan

The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its judgement in the contempt of court case against former law minister Babar Awan for ridiculing the judiciary, saying the verdict would be announced on Tuesday.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and Justice Muhammad Ather Saeed reserved the judgement after hearing Awan’s counsel, Ali Zafar’s arguments. Earlier on Wednesday, the court declined to accept Awan’s unconditional apology and hinted at framing contempt charges against him on the next hearing. Zafar said the dignity of the SC could be upheld in two ways, adding that firstly the purpose could be achieved when somebody apologised. He said the other way the court’s dignity could be upheld when the court proceeded with the trial and punished the wrongdoer in case an apology was not made.
Justice Khan, however, said it was not a matter of tendering apology, adding that there were examples that even after tendering an apology, trials were conducted, adding that a trial was not equivalent to punishment. “We had already decided to frame charges before you tendered an apology and now we are going to examine the apology,” Justice Khan said.
At one point, Justice Saeed observed that sometimes the accused tendered unconditional apologies after the court decided to frame charges against him, which he otherwise would not have. “It was not done at the preliminary stage,” he said. To support his arguments, Zafar cited various judgements including that of the PCO judges’ case. He contended that as to why his client was subjected to discrimination. He said an apology was not easy but when someone regretted his mistakes and apologised, he should be pardoned. He said accepting apology was an Islamic injunction. He said the court had to give reasons for not accepting an apology. “Your lordship… will have to give valid reasons as to why the apology was not accepted,” Zafar said. Reserving the judgement in the case, the court ruled that the verdict would be announced on Tuesday.