Islamabad High Court’s acting Chief Justice Aamer Farooq set up a larger bench comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Babar Sattar, and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb to hear the contempt case.
By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Monday decided to initiate contempt proceedings against former prime minister Imran Khan for his controversial remarks against a sessions court judge at a rally held over the weekend.
Islamabad High Court’s acting Chief Justice Aamer Farooq set up a larger bench comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Babar Sattar, and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb to hear the contempt case and the first hearing is expected on Tuesday.
PTI Khan had threatened to file cases against Islamabad’s inspector general of police and deputy inspector general of police and publicly said, “we won’t spare you” at a rally in Islamabad’s F-9 park last Saturday. He then warned the judiciary against its “biased” attitude towards his party, saying that it should brace itself for the consequences.
The PTI chairman also warned additional district and sessions judge Zeba Chaudhry, who had approved two-day physical remand of Imran’s aide Gill’s on the request of Islamabad Police, that she would also face dire consequences.
The rally was held to protest the arrest of Shehbaz Gill, his close aide. Gill was arrested by the police on August 9 after he made controversial remarks against the Pakistan army on television that were deemed “highly hateful and seditious” by the authorities.
Earlier media watchdog banned the broadcasting of live speeches of the PTI chief for threatening government officials. PEMRA, however, said Khan’s recorded speech would only be permitted to be aired after an effective delay mechanism to ensure monitoring and editorial control.
The court notice comes a day after Khan was booked under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Meanwhile, PTI’s lawyers Babar Awan and Faisal Chaudhry filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court seeking pre-arrest bail on his behalf, where a two-member bench comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani and Justice Babar Sattar took up the petition.
The court approved protective bail till August 25 and directed him to approach a relevant Anti-terrorism Court by then. Khan’s pre-arrest bail application stated that the government, in an illegal effort to settle a political score, has decided to “illegally and unlawfully victimise” the petitioner.
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