ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) Wednesday issued yet another contempt notice to the Jang Group Founder Mir Shakeelur Rehman, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sarmad Ali and others for false reporting in their July 6, 2017 story that said that the apex court had given directions to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to oversee the affairs of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) constituted to look into the Panama Papers case.
The three-member bench, headed by Justice Asif Khosa, also ordered Mir Shakeel to arrive in person for the hearing on February 7, along with others. During the hearing, the bench gave a chance to reporter Ahmad Noorani to prove the truth of his story by sharing concrete evidence with the court. The reporter failed to provide any evidence that could support his report.
It merits mention here that the court had earlier provided Noorani an opportunity to submit an unconditional apology for his misjudgement, but he refused the offer.
The apex court had issued contempt notices to the Jang Group in July 2017 for publishing a controversial story regarding ISI’s active role in the Panama Papers case, especially in relation to influencing the JIT. In reaction, the apex court had issued contempt notices to Mir Shakeel, Mir Javedur Rehman and Ahmad Noorani for promoting false information over the media.