Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday rejected the reply of former chief judge Gilgit Baltistan Rana Shamim and instructed him to file a new one on next hearing in a contempt of court case against him.

Earlier, former Chief Judge Gilgit-Baltistan Rana Shamim submitted an affidavit in which he withdrew his statement about the current judge of IHC. He said that it was a three year old incident and the statement was his misunderstanding as he was 72. He further admitted that no serving judge of this court was involved in this dispute thus he apologized unconditionally to all serving judges of this court for his misunderstanding.

Rana Shamim said that he was leaving himself at the mercy of the court and requested it to end contempt of court proceeding against him while accepting his apology. Shamim’s Lawyer Latif Afridi said that they had accepted the contents of the affidavit but the name of the IHC judge was mentioned mistakenly. Chief Justice Athar Minallah remarked that the accused had claimed that the IHC’s judges could be compromised and now he had to prove his allegation. The new answer had made the matter more complex, he noted.

The chief justice remarked that if someone apologized in contempt case and also reflected it with his conduct then the court didn’t consider continuing proceeding as it had no ego. The court said that no one could influence it even if he was a chief justice. Standing with the affidavit and apology at same time couldn’t stay together, Justice Minallah said.

The chief justice said that if he was standing with his affidavit then he should hold us as accountable with proving allegations. The lawyer said that his client was under mental stress at the time when the affidavit was written due to the deaths in family.

The chief justice said that the truth should be exposed whatever it was, adding that a serious allegation was leveled against this court which couldn’t be ignored.He said that Rana Shamim shouldn’t accept any pressure of this court. The court granted him one more opportunity to submit his answer after detailed consideration.