The Supreme Court has sought the transcript of Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah’s speech delivered on July 18 in which he allegedly referred to making PTI members of Punjab Assembly disappear before the upcoming chief minister’s election in Punjab, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
A two-judge bench comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Muneeb Akhtar heard Ch Pervaiz Elahi’s contempt of court petition against Rana Sanaullah on Wednesday.
Later, Elahi’s lawyer Faisal Chaudhry submitted the transcript of Sanaullah’s press conference made on July 18 at 9:45pm in Lahore.
Earlier, during the hearing, Elahi's lawyer Faisal Fareed urged the court to initiate contempt proceedings against Sanaullah, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, and PML-N leader Attaullah Tarar.
He contended that they had violated the July 1 Supreme Court order for holding "run-off polls" for the office of the Punjab CM on July 22 and during the interregnum period, "Hamza Shehbaz remain within the confines of the Constitution and the law without incidence of harassment of political opponents or witch-hunt".
Furthermore, the lawyer urged the court to fix the petition for hearing.
However, Justice Ahsan remarked that the petitioner was "merely quoting a newspaper clipping" and summoned a transcript of the press conference in court.
The court further observed that once the text was submitted, the case would be set for hearing.
At a press conference alongside Ms Aurangzeb on Monday, Sanaullah had said: “We will not let Elahi become the CM easily.
"If five to seven PTI lawmakers don’t come to the assembly on the voting day (July 22), how will the PTI have its chief minister?” he had asked.
Lawyer Babar Awan appeared before the court on behalf of the PTI. He said that Sanaullah threatened to make PTI lawmakers disappear on the voting day on July 22.
Justice Ahsan inquired of him what was the meaning of the disappearance of lawmakers? He further asked which words betrayed the contempt of court.
With this, the justice made hearing of the case conditional with the submission of the transcript of Sanaullah’s press conference to the court.
Reporter Amanat Gishkori