Monitoring Report
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday deferred contempt proceedings against PTI chief Imran Khan after he expressed the willingness to apologise to Additional District and Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry.
The IHC had initiated contempt proceedings against Imran over his diatribe against Judge Chaudhry, who had approved PTI leader Shahbaz Gill’s physical remand in a sedition case, at a public rally in Islamabad’s F-9 Park on Aug 20.
At the previous hearing, the IHC had termed the PTI chief’s revised response in the case as “unsatisfactory” and decided to indict him on September 22.
A larger bench, headed by IHC CJ Athar Minallah and comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri and Justice Babar Sattar, heard the case on Thursday.
In its written order, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the court observed that in his statement today, Imran said that he “may have crossed a red line”.
“He wanted to assure the Hon’ble Judges of this Court that he was willing to clarify before the Hon’ble Judge of the District Court that neither he nor his party sought any action against the Hon’ble Judge of District Court and that he would willingly apologize to the Hon’ble Judge if she felt that the respondent had crossed a line.”
The order went on that the PTI chief has promised never to do anything in the future that would hurt the dignity of the judiciary and especially the lower judiciary.
In view of Imran’s response, the court said that it was “satisfied with the apology rendered by the respondent”.
“Let him file an affidavit for consideration of this Court before the next date fixed,” the IHC added.
