Contempt of court case: Talal exempted from appearance on next hearing

The Supreme Court on Thursday exempted former State Minister for Interior Talal Chaudhry from appearance on the next date of hearing in court contempt case. A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed, heard contempt of court case against the Muslim League-Nawaz leader.
Talal was indicted on March 15, 2018 on contempt of court charges for his alleged derogatory and contemptuous statements and speeches at PML-N public gatherings against the apex court. General Manager Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) Muhammad Tahir, appearing as defence witness, stated that till May 22, 2018, there was no complaint against Talal Chaudhry.
He informed that the letter, which he wrote to Talal Chaudhry in response to his query about any pending complaint against him in Pemra, is based on the record of Pemra monitoring staff.
"I can't say the transcripts of BOL and Neo TV channels are correct or wrong as this is function of monitoring desk of Pemra," Tahir informed the bench.
During the proceedings the court inquired from defense counsel Kamran Murtaza why other witnesses are not produced. He replied that due to Eid, other witnesses could not appear for recording the statements. Upon that Justice Gulzar remarked that they will decide the case if the witnesses are not produced on the next date of hearing.
As Justice Gulzar was dictating order, the alleged contemnor Talal requested the bench to defer the hearing until July 25 as he is contesting the general election and his opponents use this case against him.
Justice Gulzar told Talal; "You are politician and trained to grapple with so many jobs at the same time," adding the works in this world never end. However, the court in view of Talal's request exempted him from appearance and adjourned the matter until June 28.
Talal recorded his statement on May 21 under Section 342 of Code of Criminal Procedure. He had requested the court to withdraw the charge of contempt of court against him by not casting doubts on his intentions about the dignity of the court.
Talal's stance is that his January 24, 2018 press talk was edited with mala fide intentions and many of his sentences were removed from the actual substance to make it controversial, while his January 27, 2018 speech was not against any of the judge. He contended that the video of his speech that was kept on record was edited with mala fide intentions to spoil the actual and original context of his speech.