Farooq Naeem—AFP
Former Gilgit-Baltistan chief justice Rana Mohammad Shamim on Monday submitted an unconditional apology to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in a contempt of court case, maintaining no sitting judge of the IHC was involved in manipulating cases against the Sharif family.
In an affidavit last year, Shamim had accused former chief justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar of influencing a “senior puisne judge” of the IHC in cases against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz to prevent them from being out of prison in the lead-up to the 2018 general elections. After daily The News published a story on it, the IHC took suo moto notice and indicted Shamim on Jan. 20. The IHC has maintained Shamim’s affidavit risks damaging the public’s trust in the judiciary.
In the response submitted on Monday, Shamim clarified no sitting judge of the IHC had been involved in the controversy and sought an unconditional pardon. “I had heard the words senior puisne judge time and again from the CJP … [I] became victim of a misunderstanding and mistakenly wrote down the name of Mr. Justice Aamer Farooq instead of senior puisne judge in the affidavit,” he said.
However, he said, he stood by his allegations against the former chief justice.
“The contents of the affidavit emanates from the sitting in which myself, my late wife, the former CJP Saqib Nisar along with his wife were present at my official residence when I was Chief Judge of Gilgit Baltistan Supreme Appellate Court,” he wrote. “[The] Former CJP on the first day of their stay while taking tea on the lawn of my residence, was trying to get connected with someone time and again, but when the said person could not be connected, then he directed his registrar to go and see him at his residence and tell him that Mian Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz Sharif should not come out on bail,” he said, adding that when the person in question could not be contacted, the ex-CJP had directed the registrar to call him on WhatsApp as soon as possible. “After some time, the then-CJP was connected to the person, he talked for few minutes; thereafter he felt relaxed and said that he has spoken to the senior puisne judge and demanded another cup of tea,” he added.
Clarifying that his affidavit had been penned during a “mentally stressful time,” he said this could have “potentially resulted in blurring of memory” and led to some misunderstanding that was reflected in in the affidavit. “Due to these circumstances, I inadvertently made this grave mistake, which I deeply regret now and unconditionally apologize for,” he said of his reference to an IHC judge.
During proceedings, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah said the high court was “extremely magnanimous and ready to accept the apology, but it depends on the conduct of the alleged contemnor.” He said, however, that Shamim could not stand by his affidavit and seek an apology simultaneously, stressing the court could not ignore the allegations in it. He then directed Shamim to reconsider the unconditional apology and submit a fresh affidavit on Sept. 19, when the court would resume hearing in this matter.