- A sessions court transfers senator’s case to ATC after inclusion of terror charges in FIR
Senator Nehal Hashmi once again found himself on the receiving end of state’s ire while media showered a copious amount of attention and airtime on him on Friday.
Submitting an application before the Supreme Court, Hashmi said that his opponents had used parts of his speech and presented it in a controversial manner to defame him. He said that he was not targeting the judiciary but only at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan.
After adding the charges of terrorism to original FIR, a sessions court in Karachi transferred the case to the Anti-Terrorism Court for further action. In his statement, Senator Hashmi said that Imran Khan and his associates had altered some parts of his speech and tried to make it controversial.
In strict accordance to law, the court cannot place contempt notice on him, he noted and requested the court that it take back its order. Also, he prayed that since Attorney General was his prosecutor in present cases, the criminal case that has been registered against him in Karachi be put on hold as it was initiated on an application of the Attorney General.
“Nowhere have I mentioned the word retired for judges as unlike civil servants, the judges don’t retire and keep writing judge with their names,” Hashmi said. He has also assured the court that in his 30 years of career as an advocate, he has never committed contempt of court.
The application filed by Hashmi through his counsel Hashmat Habib also asks the court to kindly take back its previous order of contempt of court. Also, he asked the court to end the case as he was ready to submit an unconditional apology to the Supreme Court. Senator Hashmi was dismissed from PML-N when he gave an aggressive speech after Hussain Nawaz was summoned by the JIT repeatedly.
In the immediate aftermath, amidst much commotion by opposition parties, he has tendered his resignation from the Senate, which he later withdrew. Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar took suo motu notice of the speech. Last month, Hashmi, who became senator on the ticket of PML-N, was booked for allegedly using threatening language during a speech to party workers in Bahadurabad and a case was lodged against him.
