Case against Daniyal: prosecution witnesses cross-examined

Prosecution witnesses in the court of contempt case against Federal Minister for Privatization, Daniyal Aziz, Friday recorded their statements and were cross-examined. Director (Monitoring) Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra), Haji Adam and a reporter of an Urdu daily, Sajid Chaudhry, recorded the statements and submitted documents in support of their evidence.
A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, heard the contempt notice against the federal minister of the ruling party.
The Chief Justice on February 19 had taken a suo motu notice and issued contempt notice to Federal Minister for Privatization, Daniyal Aziz for contemptuous speeches against the apex court with special reference to Panama Papers case verdict against the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Daniyal has been issued show-cause notice on the basis of his press conference dated 08-09-2017, and the statements telecast on December 15 & 19, 2018 on private TV channels and the news item published in an Urdu daily.
Director (Monitoring) Pemra Haji Adam informed that he had monitored the programs aired on Neo and Dawn TV channels. He informed the court although he has entire recording of Daniyal Aziz's statements, yet he is producing the CD of those portions, which were relevant to the contempt case. Sajid Chaudhry, a reporter of an Urdu daily, confirmed the news item, adding he prepared it after attending the press conference and the editor did not change his story.
Daniyal's counsel Ali Raza asked Sajid Chaudhry, "You have written in your story that the monitoring judge had directed the NAB officials to file reference in the Accountability Court, which is not correct." However, the reporter insisted whatever is written in the story is correct. Upon that Daniyal's lawyer requested the bench to play the video of his client's press conference on that the reporter's story is based. The clip was played in the courtroom where the bench noticed there was no mention of the monitoring judge direction to the NAB official. Sajid Chaudhry then changed his stance and said he wrote what he had perceived, adding that "I remained an economy reporter for over two decades for an English newspaper and have been doing political reporting for the last three years."
Additional Attorney General Rana Waqar, who is prosecution in this case, after the statements of Haji Adam and Sajid Chaudhry, closed the evidence. On the request of Ali Raza, the bench adjourned the case until April 16, 2018 for statement and cross-examination of defense witnesses.