ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC), on Wednesday, issued another contemptnotice to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Jang Group and others forfalsely attributing in their July 6, 2017 story the apex court as havingdirected the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to look after the affairs ofJoint Investigation Team (JIT).
The three-judge bench, headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, also asked GeoNews CEO Mir Shakeelur Rehman and others to appear in person on February 7.During the hearing, the court asked the reporter, Ahmad Noorani, inquestion to show evidence to establish his story but he failed to do so.
Earlier, the bench gave Noorani the opportunity to tender an unconditionalapology for making the telephone call to a judge, but he refused.
In July last year, the top court had issued contempt notices to the JangGroup on publishing a ‘controversial’ story relating to the role of the ISIin the Panama Papers case.
A three-judge bench issued contempt notices to owners Mir Shakeelur Rehman,Mir Javedur Rehman, and reporter Noorani over ‘false reporting’ related tothe case.
It may be mentioned here that the contempt notice was issued to Noorani onJuly 10, 2017 for contacting a Supreme Court judge at his officialresidence number to verify a piece of information pertaining to anadministrative issue (not judicial) after failing to get response from theregistrar of the court.
The SC during proceedings on Wednesday, while reading out the replysubmitted by Noorani, agreed that conversation between Noorani and JusticeEjaz Afzal Khan took place in a good environment and at times judges, beinghumans, come in contact with those known to them. However, head of thebench Justice Asif Saeed Khosa observed that this notice could be withdrawnif Noorani sought an unconditional apology.