Sukkur court summons Maryam Nawaz in contempt case

The Sukkur district and sessions court on Wednesday summoned Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senior Vice President and Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz in a contempt case filed over her “scandalous remarks” against judges of the Supreme Court.

Additional Sessions Judge Mumtaz Solangi directed Maryam Nawaz to appear before the court on March 10. He also summoned Sukkur senior superintendent of police and the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) officers.

The notice was issued on a petition filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Sukkur District President Zaheer Babar, who accused the senior PML-N leader of defaming the institutions in her address to the party workers in Sargodha last week.

Addressing a PML-N workers' convention, the PML-N chief organiser had expressed reservations over some of the judges on the top court’s nine-member bench, formed to take up the suo motu notice regarding delay in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa polls.

A similar petition against Maryam Nawaz is also pending in the Lahore High Court (LHC). During hearing of the petition against Maryam Nawaz on Tuesday, LHC Justice Shujaat Ali Khan said that some other petitions of the similar nature had come to the courts and that he was clubbing all those for hearing together on March 6.

Justice Khan had also asked the petitioner’s lawyer to inform the court whether a case of contemptuous remarks against Supreme Court judges could be heard in the high court.

(WITH INPUT FROM OUR LAHORE CORRESPONDENT)