‘Threatening’ speech: No regret, no apology from Nehal

Senator says SC’s suo motu notice caused him irreparable loss

ISLAMABAD: Senator Nehal Hashmi, who was recently ousted from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), has not shown any regret over his last month’s ‘threatening’ speech directed at the judiciary and members of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing the ruling family’s offshore assets.

Hashmi, through his counsel Hashmat Habib, submitted his reply in response to the Supreme Court’s show-cause notice concerning his ‘threats’ against ‘those investigating’ Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family.

In his reply, Hashmi did not express any remorse or apology over the alleged act. Interestingly, on the first day of hearing on June 1, he wanted to tender an unconditional apology but has changed his stance since -- to the surprise of everyone. However, his counsel believes that his client does not commit any contempt “as he will prove it”.



Hashmi in his reply believes that apex court’s suo motu notice has caused an irreparable loss to him. He also questioned the AGP’s letter to the Sindh government for initiating criminal proceedings against him.

“It is misuse of authority [that has been] causing miscarriage of justice,” says Hashmi in his reply to the show-cause notice, adding that the attorney general for Pakistan calling writing to the Sindh prosecutor general for taking action against him is surprising in the context.

Arguing that the AGP cannot be both prosecutor and party to the case, the Senator has requested the Supreme Court to quash criminal proceedings against him in FIR No 112/2017 lodged under sections 189, 228, and 505 of PPC in PS Bahadurabad, District East, Karachi, as well as all other criminal proceedings pertaining to this case.



He has also pleaded for initiating criminal proceedings against the ‘actual culprits’ who ‘distorted’ and ‘doctored’ some pieces of his speech and transmit the same on social and electronic media and ‘misguided’ the court.

The reply says: “On May 28, 2017, Hashmi delivered a speech on the occasion of ‘Youm-e-Takbeer’, in the Muslim League House Karachi, and some evil-minded elements posted some parts of the speech on Google, YouTube and other popular sites simultaneously, which were distorted and doctored with the intention to malign his reputation.

“On May 30, 2017, the electronic media lifted the same distorted portion of [the] respondent’s speech and aired [it] which resulted [in] a negative campaign starting against the respondent abruptly; and without going through the complete text of [the] respondent’s speech, some political rivals started to issue statements against the respondent and his party and connected this political statement from the CP NO. 26/2016 etc, and asserted and presumed to incriminate the same portion as contempt and intimidation to the Honourable Court of Law.”



Hashmi says “evidence is being used against him to misguide the court”. He also submitted complete transcript of his speech along with the reply.

The three-judge special bench, headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, will take up his reply on Friday.