Rana Shamim’s family seeks ministers’ disqualification over allegations

Court to take up the petition for hearing today


OUR CORRSPONDENT January 11, 2022
Rana Shamim outside IHC during the hearing held on Dec 28, 2021. SCREENGRAB

ISLAMABAD:

Retired senior judge Rana Shamim’s daughter-in-law and grandchildren have approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC), seeking disqualification of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders, including Senator Faisal Vawda and Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry as members of parliament.

The petitioners also requested the court to issue a restraining order to prevent media from conducting a “character assassination” of Shamim until the verdict in contempt of court case.

Shamim’s daughter-in-law Anum Ahmad Rana, grandson Hamza Rana and granddaughter Areeba Rana filed the petition through Advocate Ahmad Hassan Rana. The petition makes Ministry of Law, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) chairman, Senator Vawda, Federal Minister Chauhdry, MPA Sadaqat Abbasi, Minister of State Farrukh Habib, former attorney general Anwar Mansoor Khan, ARY News anchorpersons Kashif Abbasi, Waseem Badami, ARY News managing director, Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) Supreme Court of Appeal Registrar, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto University of Law registrar, and Punjab advocate general a party to the case.

The petition contends that Vawda made baseless allegations and used insulting language in a private TV channel’s programme on November 15, 2021. It adds that he also brought military boots to Kashif Abbasi’s TV show on January 14, 2020.

It states that Vawda, Chaudhry, Sadaqat Abbasi and Habib made allegations against Shamim on various TV shows, therefore, the petition seeks disqualification of Chaudhry and Vawda, and apology from Habib. It also seeks punishment for the said anchorpersons for violating PEMRA’s code of conduct.

The petitioners also sought administrative records related to Shamim’s appointment as registrar of Supreme Court of Appeal, vice chancellor of SZABU.

Read More: Ex-CJP rejects allegations of keeping Nawaz in jail till 2018 polls

They requested the court to issue a restraining order to prevent character assassination of Shamim.

The petition further states that Shamim signed an affidavit on November 10, 2021, in which he made serious allegations against former chief justice of Pakistan (CJP). It adds that he stated the “bitter truth” because of which he is facing proceedings while no inquiry has been initiated against the person mentioned in the affidavit.

It is worth mentioning here that Shamim wrote in the affidavit that during the Panama Papers case, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) chairman was asked to include Bilal Rasool in a JIT through a WhatsApp call. He also said that Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui had accused the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of interfering in judicial matters during his speech at the bar, but he was fired, and his allegations were not investigated.

He also pointed out that a video of Accountability Court judge Muhammad Arshad Malik’s meeting with Nasir Butt had previously surfaced. In 2021, an audio clip of then-CJP Saqib Nisar also went viral on social media in which he is “instructing” for punishing Nawaz Sharif, he added.

A petition to form a commission to investigate Justice (retd) Nisar’s leaked audio is also being heard in the court.

Soon after the submission of the petition, it was accepted for hearing.

According to Express News, IHC CJ Athar Minallah will hear the case on Tuesday.

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