Top court issues contempt notice to cleric for hurling threats at Justice Isa.

ISLAMABAD -- The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the unconditional apology offered by cleric Agha Iftikharuddin Mirza for making derogatory remarks and hurling threats at Justice Qazi Faez Isa and other judges and issued him with contempt notice.

Mirza on Wednesday had submitted an affidavit before the apex court, tendering an unconditional apology for 'unintentionally' uttering some words against the honourable judges in a 'private meeting'.

Rejecting his apology, a two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Ijazul Ahsan directed him to respond in seven days and to personally appear in the next hearing.

During the hearing, Justice Ahsan questioned whether such language could be allowed and if an apology can be accepted in such a case.

The chief justice remarked that there was 'no room for mercy' in the case while Justice Ahsan said that the video 'was not made by a child but by Mirza himself'.

The court further observed that Mirza had a YouTube channel and he earned money through it.

'Such curse words are not used even in the streets. Islamic scholars recorded such a video and then made it public. He [Mirza] accepted in front of the Federal Investigation Agency that he recorded the video in the presence of seven worshippers,' Justice Ahsan said.

The judge pointed out that on the one hand Mirza had accepted his crime by submitting an apology but he still claimed he had not committed a crime.

Sarkar Abbas, Mirza's lawyer, said his client was a heart patient and should be forgiven to which the chief justice said he [Mirza] should have kept his 'tongue in check'.

The chief justice berated Mirza's lawyer for not understanding...