Plea to defer Hashmi's case rejected

Islamabad: The Supreme Court yesterday rejected a government plea to defer for a month the case of jailed opposition leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi and ordered the authorities to explain the reasons for his continued imprisonment.

A three-member bench including Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Rana Bhagwandas and Justice Faqir Mohammad Khokhar decided to hear the case again tomorrow.

Hashmi, a federal lawmaker belonging to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's party, was convicted three years ago by a lower court of maligning the armed forces and awarded terms adding up to 19 years, the longest being 7-year imprisonment. The terms were to run concurrently.

His lawyer Akram Shaikh told the court that taking into account the remissions allowed under the jail manual Hashmi had completed his term and was entitled to release.

The government's advocate Arshad Chaudhry contended that the remissions were not applicable to a person convicted of sedition.

The chief justice observed that the record showed that Hashmi had almost completed the sentence and if the government wanted to keep him in jail further it should inform the court of the grounds for this.