20000303

Newsmen asked

to be careful

in reporting

proceedings

RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Irshad Hassan Khan has cautioned newsmen reporting the current hearing of petitions against the Provisional Constitutional Order of 1999 and said they were covering a very important event in the history of the country and had to exercise care.

Reacting to a complaint from the former Attorney General, Chaudhary Mohammad Farooq, who is pleading the case of Syed Zafar Ali Shah, a Pakistan Muslim League leader, the Chief Justice regretted that some of the reporting left much to be desired. "I wish they assigned law graduates to report the Supreme Court", he observed.

Chaudhary Farooq had complained against some adverse commentary on his way of presentation in a newspaper column and some instances where he was reported inaccurately.

The Chief Justice, however, told Mohammad Farooq not to worry about how he was being seen by the newspapers, because the court would judge him on his arguments before the judges and not on what appears in the newspapers.

He said the court reporters were a "kingly lot and a special class and I wish they could reproduce more correctly the goings on in the court".

He said the newspaper reports did not bother him and so those should not bother the counsel also.

Later in the course of the hearing, the Chief Justice made a number of observations on some old cases or decisions but declared those as "off-the-record", forbidding their publication.

He asked the journalist not to scandalise the proceedings, maintain the dignity of the court and help all to strengthen the system. " We should all resist any pressures and avoid involving ourselves in irrelevant matters", the Chief Justice added.

Justice Irshad Hassan Khan said he had a lot of respect for "Fourth Estate of Journalism" but was against "yellow journalism" and wanted that the "black sheep be weeded out".