IHC Dismayed Over Imran Reply In Contempt Case.

ISLAMABAD -- The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Wednesday expressed its disappointment over the written reply submitted by Chairman Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan in response to a show-cause notice issued to him for threatening an additional sessions judge of Islamabad.

A five-member larger bench of the IHC headed by Chief Justice of IHC Justice Athar Minallah and comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Miangul Hasan Aurangzeb, Justice Babar Sattar and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jehangri conducted hearing of the contempt case against Imran and gave him another chance to submit his reply within one week.

In response to a show-cause notice dated 25.08.2022, Imran Khan yesterday appeared before the court along with his counsel and the attention of the court was drawn to the provisional reply to the said notice.

In the reply, Khan prayed to the court that the said notice be discharged and it was also pleaded that a supplementary reply would be filed.

However, the IHC bench noted in its written order, 'We are not inclined to discharge the said notice having found the reply to be unsatisfactory bearing in mind, inter-alia, the law laid in the cases reported as 'Suo Motu Contempt Proceedings' [PLD 2018 SC 773], 'Suo Motu Contempt Proceedings' [PLD 2018 SC 738] and 'The State v. Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan [2020 PLD 109 Islamabad].'

At this, the counsel for the PTI Chairman sought further time to file a supplementary reply to the show cause notice as pleaded in the provisional reply. For this purpose, he has sought a period of one week.

With the consent of the parties, the court also appointed Pakistan Bar Council, Munir A Malik senior ASC and Makhdoom Ali Khan senior ASC as amici curiae in the case to assist the bench. Later, the bench deferred the hearing till September 8 for further proceedings in this matter.

During the hearing, the IHC Chief Justice said that they have read the written response and added that they did not expect what was stated about the lower court judges. Expressing his dismay over the reply, he said that he was expecting that the mistake made would have been admitted.

Addressing Imran's lawyer, he said that you are not just Imran Khan's counsel but also an aide to the court. He added that it was expected that you would have visited a subordinate court before coming here.

The IHC Chief Justice remarked that he was saddened by Imran's reply and the subordinate court referred to therein was the court of the common man. He...