ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday discharged the contempt of court case against the former Prime Minister Imran Khan, ending the contempt proceeding started against the PTI chief in late August after his controversial remarks regarding an Islamabad judge.
A larger bench, headed by IHC Cheif Justice Athar Minallah and comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, and Justice Babar Sattar heared the case.
The case dates back several weeks to August, when Imran criticized Judge Chaudhry while addressing a rally in Islamabad’s F-9 park after she had granted an extension for Shahbaz Gill’s physical remand in a sedition case.
It is pertinent to mention that former premier, while expressing his support for PTI leader Shahbaz Gill after his alleged brutal torture in police custody, announced to file cases against the Islamabad Police officials for subjecting Gill to alleged inhuman torture.
On August 22, while deliberating a petition against Gill’s physical remand, Justice Aamer Farooq of the IHC made the decision to begin contempt proceedings against the former Prime Minister. Imran Khan received a show-cause notice from the court on August 31 and was summoned on the same day.
A day before the hearing, the former prime minister submitted a response to the IHC in which he offered to “take back” his comments about the judge if they were “regarded as inappropriate” and pleaded with the IHC that the judges who had agreed to start the case against him should think about resigning from the bench because, in his opinion, they had pre-judged the matter.
However, the IHC had deemed the response “unsatisfactory” and on September 8, the IHC decided to Indict Imran after his second response.
Following this, Imran had submitted another reply to the court. In the revised response, Imran had stopped short of rendering an unconditional apology.
On September 8, the IHC had decided to indict Imran, once again calling his response “unsatisfactory”.
However, at the next hearing on September 22, when it was expected that charges would be framed against the PTI chief, Imran had offered to tender an apology to Judge Chaudhry and escaped the indictment.
In his affidavit, Imran Khan vowed to comply with the statement given on September 22 before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in the last hearing. “I am ready to apologies if the judges think I had crossed a red line,” he added.
The larger bench hearing the case had stated that it was “satisfied” with the apology after the PTI leader’s statement in court and had ordered him to file an affidavit.
Imran had already appeared before an Islamabad sessions court on Friday to express his regret to Judge Chaudhry in person, but his apology was left unanswered for the judge was on vacation.
