SC seeks lawyers’ help to decide Nehal’s fate

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday admonished the PML-N leader Nehal Hashmi over his alleged abusive talk against the judiciary and summoned the lawyers’ apex bodies for opinion to decide about the law practicing licence of the accused.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar resumed hearing in a show cause notice issued to Nehal Hashmi in the contempt case. The court issued notices to vice chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), president Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and other bar associations for today (Tuesday) to give their opinion as to how Nehal Hashmi could be dealt with for his abusive language.

The SC had issued a second contempt of court notice to Nehal Hashmi and a first information report (FIR) was registered against him on court orders for his speech on February 28 targeting the judiciary. Hashmi made the speech after his release from the Adiala Jail following a one-month-long prison sentence for contempt of court.

On the last hearing, the court had issued show cause notice to Hashmi after rejecting hisrepeated apologies, but gave a favour by not suspending his law practicing licence till the viewpoint of PBC, the apex body of legal fraternity. On Monday, Justice Saqib Nisar asked Nehal Hashmi as to whether he can use the same abusive language for himself as he used for the judges of the apex court. “If I were at your place and uttered the same as lawyer, I would have been ashamed of myself,” the chief justice said.

The chief justice asked Nehal Hashmi who he was abusing outside the jail. However, Hashmi said that he was not abusing anyone. Upon that, the court again played the video in the courtroom wherein Nehal Hashmi was using abusive language against the judges of the apex court. Hashmi regretted his action, but argued that he was just acting in the video and repeating the words of people who were staying in the jail and were criticising the whole system.

The court then called senior lawyer and former president SCBA Rashid A Rizvi for comments over the abusive language of Nehal Hashmi. “This is the test of your justice Rizvi Sahib, as I am going to hold accountability through lawyers now,” the chief justice asked Rizvi.

“This is not defendable and a lawyer cannot utter such words,” Rizvi replied. He further said that they have great respect for the judiciary as well as to the judges of the apex court, adding that the lawyers’ community had played a great role for the restoration of judiciary and supremacy of the Constitution and law. The chief justice then asked Farogh Nasim, another senior lawyer present in the courtroom, to comment on the derogatory attitude of Nehal Hashmi. Farogh Nasim too said that the language used by Nehal Hashmi was not defendable. The chief justice observed that still Hashmi was telling a lie and denying the video. A representative of the Sindh Bar Association also told the court that Hashmi could not be pardoned for the abusive language used against the judges of the apex court. The chief justice said the court can better handle the situation but before that, it wants to seek the opinion of the legal fraternity on the matter.