The Supreme Court indicted yesterday, the chief executive and the anchorperson of a private television network on contempt charges in a case related to the airing of a scandalous and defamatory programme against the judiciary.
Both CEO Salman Iqbal and anchorperson Mubashir Lucman of ARY pleaded not guilty and denied the charges when they appeared before a three-judge bench, headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal. Their counsel Irfan Qadir termed the charge ‘vague’.
The contempt charges were framed against the respondents for the May 29 talk show ‘Khara Sach’ in which Mr Lucman had levelled serious allegations against SC judge Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja – his relationship with Mir Shakeelur Rehman, the owner of Geo TV network, and the sale of a property in Lahore by the judge’s wife to the Punjab government.
“By your words, gestures and tone, the respondents have not only defamed and scandalised the court but also made a statement against a judge and thus tended to bring him into hatred, ridicule and contempt and thereby committed contempt of the court within the meaning of Article 204 (2) of the Constitution read with Section 3 of the Contempt of Court Ordinance V of 2003 and punishable under section 5 of the law,” the charge said.
It added that since the offence made was within the cognisance of this court, the bench had decided that both be tried by the Supreme Court on contempt charges.
The court appointed Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt to prosecute the respondents under the contempt law. The respondents were asked to submit within a week their reply to the charges.
The court ordered the prosecution and the respondents’ side to submit within a fortnight lists of their witnesses and postponed the proceedings till Jan 22.
