ISLAMABAD: Former federal privatisation minister Daniyal Aziz on Thursday announced his father will contest the upcoming general election on his behalf after the Supreme Court sentenced him for contempt “till rising of the court”.
“We had prepared for a SC verdict disqualifying me,” Aziz said while speaking to the media in Islamabad outside the top court.
“My father has submitted nomination papers and will contest the election on my behalf,” the former federal privatisation minister — who had been issued a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) ticket for NA-77, Narowal-I constituency — declared.
Asking his constituents to not be worried after the apex court verdict, Aziz further said, “Nobody in my family is involved in corruption and my family will not be tainted because of me.”
“There are no corruption charges against me,” he asserted.
Aziz further claimed neither he nor his party are involved in contempt of court.
“My party and I always respected the court and their decisions,” Aziz said.
The PML-N leader continued, “We did not lock-down or attack Islamabad in reaction to the top court’s verdict.”
“We struggled to make institutions stronger,” he upheld.
Explaining the charges against him, Aziz said, “There were three charges against me and one of them dated back to a year.”
“I was exonerated in the first charge. The sole witness told the court that I did not use the words that I had been accused of using,” he said.
“The second charge against me was based on a private channel news report,” Aziz said while adding that they had pleaded to the court to specify the charge against him.
“The court highlighted what the charge was based on from the transcript but when we saw the video, the underlined party had been beeped out,” he maintained.
He added, “The news channel received the video in question from a third source.”
Aziz explained, “The third charge against me was my statement on the verdict regarding Imran Khan.”
The former privatisation minister further said, “I will take up legal proceedings after reading the verdict.”
A three-judge bench of the top court had taken suo motu notice of Aziz’s anti-judiciary remarks in February this year.
In its judgment today, the court ruled that Aziz had attempted to malign the court in his speech and spread hatred in light of Section 2 (b) of Article 204 of the Constitution.
The court also ruled that it deliberately showed leniency and did not send Aziz to jail for six months.
The trial
The apex court had issued a show-cause notice to Aziz on February 19, after a contempt of court notice was sent to him on February 2 over his “controversial speeches and statements made during television shows”.
Aziz was indicted on contempt charges by the apex court on March 13.
The SC had reserved its decision in the case on May 3 after both sides completed their arguments.
Aziz, who vehemently defended in the media former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family during the Panama Papers case proceedings last year, has been awarded a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz ticket to contest the July 25 general election from NA-77, Narowal-I.
At the last hearing of the case on May 3, when the decision was reserved, prosecutor Rana Waqar had argued that Aziz’s remarks were an attack on the system of justice.
Waqar had informed the bench that Aziz had termed ‘scripted’ Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leaders’ Imran Khan’s acquittal and Jahangir Tareen’s disqualification by the apex court and stated that the monitoring judge of the Supreme Court orchestrated the corruption references against Nawaz and his family..
