Cleric pleads with SC for pardon in Isa case.

ISLAMABAD -- RawalApindi-based cleric Mirza Iftikharuddin on WednesAday requested the Supreme Court to accept his apology and acquit him from the charges of contempt over his derogatory and scandalous speech against the judiciary.

'It is most humbly request-ed that his apology may be accepted and he may be exonerated/acquitted from the charge of contemptuous remarks,' said a three-page apology letter submitted by the cleric's counsel Advocate Mrs Sarkar Abbas to the Supreme Court. The accused assured the court through an understanding that he would never repeat such an act in future.

At the last hearing on July 2, a two-judge SC bench comprising Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan had framed a formal contempt charge against the cleric for his derogatory and scandalous speech against the judiciary, which went viral on social media.

The court indicted the cleric under Section 5 of the Contempt of the Court Ordinance 2003 after rejecting his unconditional apology he tendered for making an objectionable speech in a private meeting in which he had hurled abusive language at Justice Qazi Faez Isa of the Supreme Court as well as the institution of judiciary.

On the basis of the video clip, the wife of Justice Isa had lodged a complaint with the Secretariat police station in Islamabad on June 24, saying the life of her family was in danger as they were receiving threats of dire consequences.

In his apology, Mirza Iftikhar said he was 67 years of age and a chronic cardiac patient with blockage of...

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