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Malik Riaz given 7 more days to hire counsel
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) has given seven more days to Malik Riaz Hussain to hire a legal counsel in the contempt of court case for ridiculing the judiciary and adjourned the hearing till June 28, Geo News reported Thursday.A three-member special bench of the apex court comprising Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice Tariq Parvez and Justice Amir Hani Muslim conducted the hearing of the case "Contempt proceedings against Malik Riaz Hussain by order of the Chief Justice of Pakistan."
On June 14, the SC gave Malik Riaz seven days to hire his counsel after issuing a show cause notice a day earlier.
At the outset of the proceedings, Malik Riaz appeared before the bench alone saying he was unable to engage any lawyer to defend himself.
“No one is ready to contract with me for the case, whoever I contacted has refused, even the previous ones have abandoned me,” Riaz told the bench. “Even Raymond Davis was able to get a lawyer.”
He pleaded the court to give him 10 more days for the purpose.
Justice Shakirullah Jan remarked that unavailability of the lawyer is his problem. The show cause notice was issued so that the court could hear his arguments, he added.
On this, the court was told by a lawyer that Malik Riaz has a legal team to represent Bahria Town in more than 150 cases.
The bench asked Riaz what if no lawyer agreed to defend him, he replied, the Almighty will be my counsel. A lawyer suggested to provide Malik Riaz legal counsel on state expenses.
Before adopting the resolutions, the bar counsels should consider that it is not hindering the provision of justice, the court observed.
Later, the hearing was adjourned till June 28, with the observation that the court will engage a counsel for Malik Riaz.
Real estate tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain is facing contempt charges over a press conference that scandalised and ridiculed the judiciary relating to the Dr Arsalan case.
It is worth mentioning that with a pocket-sized copy of the Holy Quran in his hand, Malik Riaz Hussain on June 12 hurled serious but contradictory allegations on Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and his son Arsalan Iftikhar during a press conference at a local hotel on Tuesday. Malik also claimed that there was no free judiciary in the country, saying that it was being run by a 'don', namely Arsalan Iftikhar, the son of the CJ.
Malik Riaz, in his press conference, had also urged the chief justice to tell the nation how many times he (Malik) and the CJ met in the 'darkness of night.'
Courtesy www.geo.tv