ISLAMABAD: Arrest warrants for former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan have been issued in contempt of court remarks against Additional District and Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry.
The arrest warrant dated September 30 was issued by Senior Civil Judge Rana Mujahid Rahim.
The warrant to arrest Imran Khan was issued in the Case registered on August 20, 2022 at Margalla Police Station. In the Case, Sections 504/506 and 188/189 have been filed against Imran Khan.
What did Imran Khan say?
In his Aug 20 address, Imran had threatened to file cases against Islamabad’s inspector general of police and deputy inspector general of police and said: “We won’t spare you.”
The former premier had also taken exception to ADSJ Chaudhry, who had approved Shahbaz Gill’s two-day physical remand at the request of the capital police, and said she should “prepare herself as action would be taken against her”.
Reaction
PTI workers began congregating at the former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s Banigala residence in Islamabad following the news of arrest warrants issued in connection with his controversial remarks against Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Zeba Chaudhry.
The Islamabad police subsequently issued a statement, explaining the reasons for the warrant which it said was a “legal process”.
The police said that after the Islamabad High Court struck down terror charges from a case registered against Imran for his remarks, the case was transferred to a sessions court and the PTI chief had not obtained his bail from there.
The police said he had also not attended the last court hearing on the matter and the arrest warrant was thus issued to ensure his presence.
Imran Khan went to Judge Zeba Chaudhry’s court for apology
Before submitting the affidavit today, Imran appeared before an Islamabad sessions court to personally apologise to Judge Chaudhry on Friday (yesterday), but his apology was left hanging as the judge was on leave.
In her absence, Imran left a message for her with the court reader, Choudhry Yasir Ayaz.
“I have come to apologise to judicial magistrate Zeba Chaudhry,” he could be heard saying to the court reader in a video shared by the PTI on Twitter.
“You have to tell Madam Zeba Chaudhry that Imran Khan had visited and wanted to apologise if his words hurt her sentiments,” he said.
Imran submits affidavit to IHC in contempt case
In his affidavit submitted to court today, Imran said he had “realised during these (contempt) proceedings before the honourable court that he might have crossed a red line while making [a] public speech on August 20, 2022”. However, he added, he never intended to threaten Judge Chaudhry and “there was no intention behind the statement to take any action other than legal action”.
He said he wanted to assure the IHC that he was willing to explain and clarify before Judge Chaudhry that“ neither he nor his party seeks/sought any action“ against her and he was willing to apologise to her “if she got an impression that the deponent (Imran) had crossed a line”.
The PTI chief assured the court that in future he would not do anything that would hurt the dignity of any court and the judiciary, especially the lower judiciary.
Contempt proceedings
The decision to initiate contempt proceedings against Imran was taken by the IHC’s Justice Aamer Farooq on August 22 while hearing a petition challenging Gill’s police remand. The court had summoned Imran on August 31 and subsequently issued him a show-cause notice.
A day before the hearing, the former prime minister had submitted a reply before the IHC wherein he had expressed his willingness to “take back” his words about Judge Chaudhry if they were “regarded as inappropriate”. He had pleaded before the IHC that the judges who had agreed to initiate the case against him should consider withdrawing themselves from the bench as, according to him, they had pre-judged the matter.
However, the IHC had deemed the response to be “unsatisfactory” and asked the PTI chief to submit a “well-considered” response.
On September 8, the IHC had decided to indict Imran, once again calling his response “unsatisfactory”.
