KARACHI: A court on Monday (today) granted Rs 50,000 interim bail to Senator Nehal Hashmi in a controversial speech case registered against him.
The bail was granted by Session Judge East Karachi.
The case was registered at the Bahadurabad Police Station on the federal government’s directions after a section of his speech attacking those probing the prime minister’s family’ went viral on May 31.
Hashmi who was accompanied by senior office-holders of the Karachi Bar Association, stated in the court today that his entire speech was about 14 minutes l but the media only showed a minute or so, stirring an unnecessary controversy.
The Supreme Court took suo motu notice after the video went viral, showing Hashmi making threatening remarks reportedly against the Supreme Court and the Panama case Joint Investigation Team.
Hashmi was expelled by the PML-N leadership and asked to resign from his senate position, however, he refused to comply with the resignation orders. Moreover, on the order of the attorney general, a case was registered against Hashmi at the Bahadurabad Police Station.
At the last hearing in the contempt of court case against Hashmi in the Supreme Court on June 23, the three-member Panama case implementation bench hearing the case expressed displeasure over the absence of Hashmi who was said to have gone to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah.
Justice Ejaz also informed Hashmi’s counsel that the bench is dissatisfied with their reply to the contempt notice.
In his order, the judge further observed that Hashmi would be indicted at the next hearing on July 10.
Hashmi, on June 20, submitted a 19-page reply saying he believed the incident to be a tactic played by his political rivals, as he “cannot even imagine to slander the judiciary”. Hashmi further claimed that he respected the judiciary and he himself had been associated with the law profession for the past 30 years and also supported the layers’ movement in 2007.