Former prime minister Imran Khan dodged contempt charges on Monday after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) withdrew the show cause notice issued to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief in a case pertaining to 'threatening' a woman sessions court judge in a speech.
The PTI chief appeared before the IHC today, where the case was heard by a five-member bench, headed by IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah. The bench also included Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Babar Sattar.
The IHC CJ observed that the bench was satisfied with the apology and Imran's conduct.
The IHC had in August constituted a larger bench to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the former premier for “threatening” Additional Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry during his speech in Islamabad.
In an affidavit submitted to the court two days ago, the PTI chief had assured the court that he would never do anything in the future that would hurt the dignity of any court and the judiciary, especially the lower judiciary.
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Imran had also said that he will fully follow what he said before the court in the last hearing, and added that he was ready to take further action to satisfy the court in this regard.
The deposed premier further said that he was "willing to apologise" if the judge thought that he crossed a "red line".
Three days earlier, Imran had also appeared before an Islamabad lower court to personally apologise to Additional District and Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry, who was not present there at the time.
During the proceedings today, the court remarked that “in retrospect, it was contempt of court”. However, it added that Imran had gone to the district court and the court had been satisfied before announcing that the show-cause notice was retracted.
AAG opposes
The additional attorney general (AAG) opposed the acceptance of Imran’s affidavit, but the court dismissed the proceedings saying that the concerns raised would be included in the written judgment.
“This is the unanimous decision of the larger bench,” stated IHC CJ Minallah as he announced that the contempt of court notice stood discharged.
As the court was expected to announce its verdict after proceedings today, strict security arrangements had been put into place. Lawyers, legal officers and journalists were allowed to enter the courtroom on an entry pass issued by the Registrar's Office.
It may also be noted that the judicial bench had declared Imran’s apology statement satisfactory in the previous hearing.
Nonetheless, in a new affidavit submitted upon court orders, Imran had refrained from offering an unconditional apology while assuring the court that he will ensure the implementation of the statement he gave in court and that he would avoid making such statements in the future.
Imran hails judgment
Standing outside the court, Imran told reporters that he “always believed the IHC passes great judgments”.
Referring to Imran and PTI leaders' recent comments after the acquittal of PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz in the Avenfield Apartments’ reference a journalist retorted that “what you refer to as NROs are also court judgments”.
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To this, the PTI chief replied that, “Just like all politicians are not always good, like journalists can be good or bad. In the same way some courts' decisions are good and some are not”.
Earlier before the hearing, in an informal conversation with the media, Imran had expressed uncertainty about whether or not the contempt charges against him would be discharged.
“There is a different law for the powerful, and another law for the weak,” Imran had remarked while commenting on the Lahore High Court’s decision to return PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz her passport.
He also said that the PTI would “not sit in the assembly” despite SC’s advice to the party to rejoin the parliament.
“We negotiate with political parties,” said the PTI chief, “not with criminals and convicts”.
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