ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday announced to open the sealed affidavit of former Gilgit-Baltistan chief judge — reportedly sent from London through a mail courier and received here over the weekend — on December 28 when it will resume hearing in a case which many likened to opening Pandora’s box.
Reports citing sources in the high court, the package was received by the court registrar who placed another seal on it to secure its contents.
Rana Muhammad Shamim, long-associated with the party of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif, in November claimed former chief justice Saqib Nisar did not want former and his daughter Maryam Nawaz to be released on bail ahead of the general elections in July 2018.
The two were convicted in a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reference related to their ownership of four multi-million-dollar London apartments weeks before the elections on July 25. When their counsels moved the high court for suspension of the conviction, the case was adjourned until the last week of July.
Nisar had travelled to the mountainous region for vacations in 2018, an affidavit Shamim purportedly signed in London during a trip to the British capital last month, said.
On one occasion, the then top judge appeared “very disturbed” while speaking to the Supreme Court registrar on the phone, asking him to get in touch with a high court judge.
Once able to get in touch with the judge, Mr Nisar ordered him that “Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz Sharif must remain in jail until the general elections are over. On assurances from the other side, he [Nisar] became calm and happily demanded another cup of tea.”
The other judge was not named in the affidavit.
Shamim is now facing a contempt of court case in the court of IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah.
In Monday’s hearing, Islamabad Advocate General Niazullah Niazi, reporter Ansar Abbasi, The News Editor Aamir Ghauri and Shamim and with his counsel Latif Afridi appeared.
The sealed envelope carrying the affidavit was presented before Justice Minallah. The judge said the court will open the package at the next hearing since Attorney General Khalid Javed Khan did not appear owing to his health issues.
Justice Minallah said Shamim raised fingers at the judges of his court, adding his court was not worried about the criticism it is receiving.
This is the matter of prestige of my court, Shamim should present evidence to support the claims he made, Justice Minallah remarked.
“[…] Rana Shamim sahib has cast doubt on all judges of the IHC,” the chief justice said, adding the court had already made it clear that it did not fear criticism.
The court then asked Afridi to satisfy it with his arguments, saying the contempt charge would be retracted after the court’s satisfaction.
The court observed that the story Abbasi filed gave the impression that judges were unable to work independently and according to the law.
“This is an open inquiry. This is our accountability,” the judge said. He added that Shamim had apparently made “a very big statement without any evidence” and given an impression that all IHC judges were “compromised”.
The hearing was subsequently adjourned until December 28.
