Contempt of court: Judgement reserved in Babar Awan's case

The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its verdict in a contempt case against former law minister Babar Awan. A two-member special bench of the apex court comprising Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and Justice Muhammad Ather Saeed heard the contempt case. During the proceedings, the footage of Awan's press conference was screened in the court.
Babar, in the presence of some other PPP stalwarts, was seen criticising court's interim orders on memo scandal at Press Information Department. Barrister Ali Zafar, the attorney for Awan said his client had great respect for judiciary. The defence counsel told the court that what his client had said at the press conference was in fact a political statement against PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif.
"The press conference was not against the judiciary, rather it was against the actions of PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, who is a political opponent of his party," Zafar added. "The entire speech was a political debate in an historical prospective which took place in the context of the past background of opposition between the two political parties of PPP and PML-N," he explained. Zafar said Awan had no intention to criticise the judiciary and if the court thought his remarks had hurt it in any manner, he had regretted his remarks.
"There was absolutely neither any intention, nor malice at all," he added. Upon this, Justice Afzal said Babar Awan had not tendered an apology as he had expressed regret. "There is a difference in regret and apology," he observed. The defence counsel cited some reference to show that the court had accepted the regrets of Nawaz Sharif and Wali Khan in two different contempt cases against them.
Justice Ather Saeed criticised Awan's remarks and said the court always welcomed positive criticism on its orders in good faith, but it could not be ridiculed. Justice Ijaz Afzal said the court's orders were the public property and directed Awan's counsel to read out the reply of his client.
He said he had also seen the media talk of Awan that he delivered outside the court building where he once again criticised the judiciary. Earlier, a 17-member larger bench of the court suspended the licence of Babar Awan on the charge of making mockery of its earlier notice at a media talk. The Chief Justice had remarked that it had become the daily routine of Babar Awan to ridicule the judiciary. "Babar Awan is handing out statements every day against the Supreme Court which had issued him a license to be a lawyer; the court does not issue licence to anyone for insulting the apex court," the Chief Justice had observed.