SC asks lawyers to decide if Nehal Hashmi’s license should be revoked

• PML-N loyalist once again asks for apex court’s forgiveness 

• CJP warns Hashmi ‘we will not spare you’ 

• Justice Nisar tells lawyers if they say PML-N leader should be forgiven, the court will do so 

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday asked senior lawyers to help decide whether the lawyer’s license of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) loyalist Nehal Hashmi should be cancelled over the most recent inflammatory speech that he made after completing his one-month sentence for contempt of court.

After his release from the Adiala Jail, Hashmi had declared himself “a victim of revenge” while complaining that his appeal against the verdict in the contempt of court case was not heard even after his sentence had ended.

“This is the height of oppression,” he had said. “Who are you holding accountable? And who are you anyway? I stand by what I said [earlier],” he had said.

As the hearing went underway, where Hashmi’s indictment was expected, the three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar played the video clip of the PML-N leader’s latest controversial remarks against the judiciary.

Hashmi once again sought to apologise for his remarks.He said he had not named the judiciary in his speech and only “repeated what the inmates [at Adiala Jail] used to say”.

In response to Hashmi’s plea for forgiveness, the chief justice remarked, “how can you appeal for leniency,” adding that if he [chief justice] was in Hashmi’s place, he would have drowned in shame.

“How dare you abuse the apex court judges.We will not spare you,” the CJP remarked. Chief Justice Nisar went on to add if Hashmi would use the same language for himself.

The CJP then summoned lawyers from Karachi present in the courtroom to the rostrum and directed them to decide after watching the video clip whether Hashmi’s license should be revoked or not.

“If you say we should forgive him [Hashmi], we can do so conditionally,” Justice Nisar told the lawyers.

Senior lawyers Barrister Farogh Naseem and Rasheed A Rizvi told the court that Hashmi’s remarks were not justifiable in any way.

Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) president Qalb Hussain said the court should have mercy on Hashmi as he had tendered an apology.

The CJP said the court will look into what room there was in the Constitution with regards to suspension of licences.

The court directed the presidents of Supreme Court Bar Association and Pakistan Bar Council to appear before it on Tuesday to give their opinions.

Taking up its second contempt notice against Hashmi on March 12, a three-judge SC bench headed by Justice Nisar, dismissed his response as unsatisfactory and decided to indict him.

Talking to the media after the hearing, Hashmi had claimed that he never uttered any words against the judges and judiciary.

“That clip showed the language of inmates,” he had said. He had also asserted that it is his legal and constitutional right that the apology he tenders before the court is accepted, adding that “I shouldn’t be victimised politically”.

“I hope the court will think about my apology,” he had said.

Earlier on March 7, during the SC’s proceedings against Hashmi, his lawyer Kamran Murtaza had claimed that the former senator was “ashamed” of what he said and asked for it to be omitted from the court’s written order, the chief justice, however, refused his request.

During the proceedings, a video of Hashmi’s post-prison-release media talk was played. In response, Hashmi had claimed that he was “acting”, to which Justice Umar Ata Bandiyal asked, “if the lawyer and politician was an actor”.

“I was merely expressing the sentiments of people,” Hashmi had told the bench.

The court also issued notices to vice-chairmen of all the bar councils to submit their response to the court’s plan to cancel Hashmi’s license to practice law.