LAHORE: Federal Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal took a sharp u turn over thecase of the contempt of court.
He said that his statements regarding Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) MianSaqib Nisar was a complaint as he could never even think of insultingcourts.
The interior minister appeared before a three-member bench headed byJustice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi in a contempt case which was filed againsthim for an “anti-judiciary speech” made in April.
During the court proceedings, Ahsan Iqbal said that he cannot think ofinsulting courts.
“I am a political worker and believe in democracy and judiciary,” he added.
The court said that it only talks about the supremacy of law. Subsequently,the minister has been directed to submit written reply in the court.
At the last hearing, the LHC had ordered Ahsan Iqbal to appear before thecourt on May 30 in the case after he had failed to appear.
His counsel Azam Nazir Tarar told the bench that the minister was in SaudiArabia, due to which he could not appear before the court, but will do soin the next hearing.
Expressing scepticism at Tarar’s claim, Justice Atir Mehmood had asked ifthe minister “got up in the morning and suddenly decided to go for Umrah”.
Iqbal had not appeared in the last hearing as well since he was undergoingtreatment after being shot earlier this month.