SC rejects Tallal’s plea for postponing hearing of contempt case

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday rejected Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Tallal Chaudhry’s plea to postpone the hearing of his contempt case till after the upcoming general elections.

Chaudhry’s counsel Kamran Murtaza did not appear before the court for Tuesday’s hearing. A three-judge bench of the SC headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmad resumed the hearing. Chaudhry appeared before the bench and requested to adjourn the contempt proceedings.

The bench adjourned the case until Thursday and also expressed anger over Murtaza’s absence. The court further asked Chaudhry to engage a new counsel if Murtaza continues to skip hearings.

On May 21, Chaudhry insisted that he never intended to commit contempt of court and that he was not a habitual offender. Deposing before the three-judge bench, the PML-N leader said that he had delivered thousands of speeches, but no-one, including the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), had raised any objection.

He said that the word ‘PCO’ had consistently been used in the past and that he was only using it as a symbolic reference. The same word i.e. PCO judges was also used by activists of the lawyers’ movement and Charter of Democracy, he added.

The former minister said that he was a law graduate and a political worker belonging to a middle-class family. When Justice Gulzar asked him that how he would define ‘middle class’, he said that he owned some land and ran a business.