Former federal minister for Privatization, Daniyal Aziz on Saturday filed an intra-court appeal against his conviction and disqualification in the contempt of court case.
The PML-N leader has filed the appeal under Section 19 (III) of Contempt of Court Ordinance, 2003. He raised questions whether the impugned judgment dated 28-06-2018 suffers from misreading and non-reading of the evidence on record pertaining to the video clip as telecast on a private TV channel on 15-12-2017 and on another private TV channel on 19-12-2017.
A three-judge bench on 28-06-2018 convicted and disqualified Daniyal Aziz for five years after finding him guilty of contempt of court. The bench headed by Justice Azmat Saeed and comprising Justices Mushir Alam and Mazhar Alam Miankhel announced the verdict.
Daniyal faced the charges of scandalizing the judiciary during TV shows, the verdict said. The court ruling stated the PML-N leader was convicted under Article 204 for maligning the court, making the judiciary controversial and interrupting justice.
The former minister, because of the disqualification in the contempt petition, could not contest the general election from NA-67 Narowal as under Article 63(1)(g) he could not hold any public office for five years.
The Supreme Court had taken suo motu notice of 'anti-judiciary' speeches made by Daniyal Aziz last year. He was indicted on March 13, 2018 on the contempt charges. However, he had pleaded not guilty to the charges. After the Supreme Court's July 28, 2017 verdict in Panama Papers case, in which Nawaz Sharif was disqualified as prime minister, members of the ruling party, including Daniyal Aziz, on a number of occasions had launched unprecedented verbal attacks on the country's judiciary, accusing it of having different standards for the former prime minister and his opponents.