ISLAMABAD, Sept 27: On a written directive of the Supreme Court registrar, Islamabad police started contacting the TV anchorpersons who recently hosted interviews with Senator Faisal Raza Abidi in which the firebrand PPP leader passed highly critical remarks against Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

A letter titled “Probe into some biased TV programmes against the honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan” has been sent to the anchorpersons/producers of private TV channels and PTV. It was issued by the office of Islamabad IG and signed by Assistant Inspector General Tahir Alam Khan.

Referring to the directive of the SC registrar, the letter said: “Police have been asked to conduct a thorough inquiry into the matter. All persons of TV channels may also be examined after taking the transcripts of Mr Abidi’s press conferences and TV programmes for a comprehensive report to be presented to the Chief Justice within seven days for further action.”

The anchorpersons have been asked to submit individual statements explaining the motive behind the interviews.

Talking to Dawn, a TV host said his management was in touch with its lawyers to prepare the required statement. “We are taking one obvious line that the show was held in the public interest because a sitting parliamentarian was busy hurling highly contemptuous remarks at the office of the Chief Justice of Pakistan and we only wanted to unearth why he was doing that.”

Answering a question, the host said: “During my show I didn’t support Mr Abidi’s argument; instead challenged his frivolous remarks against the Chief Justice.”

A senior manager of a private TV channel, who did not want to be named, said his reply to the letter was that the show was conducted after Senator Abidi had levelled serious allegations against the Chief Justice at press conferences. He said he had submitted his statement to the capital police.