The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday issued directives that column-wise details of outstanding dues may be resubmitted and reasons for not making payment of these dues be explained.
The court issued these directives while hearing the case filed by owners of newspapers in connection with stay order on the payment of outstanding dues.
A three-member bench of SC headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja took up for hearing Hamid Mir case on Tuesday.
Tariq Sohail told the court that he had filed two CMEs. “The amount has not been returned during the period from 2008 to 2012,” he said.
Justice Khilji observed, “Most of the matters that have been mentioned in the details and informed to court pertain to MIDAS but no mention has been made about the period, therefore, it can not be ascertained to which period these dues relate to.”
Justice Jawwad said the court should be told in respect of expenses and dues on column-wise pattern. “There are a lot of newspapers that wee have come to know of today.”
The counsel said, “We want that media-related dues are paid as soon as possible.”
Justice Jawwad remarked, “We will correct the system so that no corruption remains and no one is disturbed. This will take place. Allow us to do some work. We want the matter is made transparent to the maximum extent. This is in your favour. This is an issue for all of us. If the dues are just, they should be paid. Nothing has moved hither and thither. If we are provided column-wise details it will be better. We sit here for hearing but no information is made available. We have to hear other cases. We want to reach some conclusion. We will not allow that we give date of hearing every other day and adjourn the hearing.”
With these observations, the proceedings were adjourned until May 2.
