SC clarifies news reports about CJP Khosa

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday clarified a news item carried by a section of electronic and print media regarding an informal meeting of the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khan Khosa with the Press Association of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, a three-member bench of a special court had convicted Musharraf for high treason and handed him death penalty. The verdict was split 2-1 in favor of the conviction. Later that day, news reports started circulating that CJP Khosa had held an informal meeting with the Press Association of the SC and discussed the case.

“Musharraf’s was an open-and-shut case and he was given multiple opportunities to defend himself. These people wanted to prolong the matter. The case was decided despite attempts to delay it,” some media outlets had quoted the chief justice as saying in the alleged informal meeting.

In the statement issued on Wednesday, the apex court rejected the reports, saying: “Some misleading and out of context news items were aired/published by different TV channels and newspapers, without identifying any source, attributing these to the chief justice.”

It added: “The above news items created an impression that the Honorable Chief Justice of Pakistan was personally involved in the progress of the case before the special court. It is hereby clarified that different benches of the Supreme Court of Pakistan had been hearing different aspects of the case of General (retd) Pervez Musharraf and had passed various orders for early dispositions of the said case.”

The statement stated that the Chief Justice had not issued any direction of any sort to the Special Court other than the judicial directions issued by the relevant benches of the Supreme Court in the said case, which already stood published in the law reports of the country.

“It is, therefore, clarified that the above mentioned news items aired/published by the media were baseless, concocted, false, stage managed, out of context and contrary to the facts,” it added.