ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Athar Minallah, while hearing a contempt of court case against former chief justice of Gilgit-Baltistan Rana Shamim and three others on Monday, asked the amicus curiae to respond to the question whether a ‘privileged document’ could be published as a news item.

However, the court deferred the framing of charges till Dec 20 and again directed Mr Shamim to submit the original affidavit.

The court had previously directed him to submit the same during hearings on Nov 30 and Dec 7.

The contempt of court case against Rana Shamim, Jang Group’s editor-in-chief Mir Shakeelur Rehman, resident editor Aamir Ghouri and editor investigation Ansar Abbasi relates to the publication of an affidavit attributed to Mr Shamim in which he accused former chief justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar of manipulating judicial proceedings to deny bails to the top PML-N leadership prior to the 2018 general elections.

Defers framing of charges against former GB judge till Dec 20

During the proceeding, Justice Minallah pointed out that Mr Shamim had in a written reply to the show-cause notice contended that his affidavit was a privileged document and was not meant for publication. He wondered how a media house could publish a story based on a privileged document.

When Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists secretary general Nasir Zaidi, who is an amicus curiae (friend of the court) in the case, tried to divert the court’s attention to the overall political scenario, Justice Minallah said that he would not listen to any “political speeches” and remarked that he was only responsible for the Islamabad High Court.

The IHC chief justice said publishing such a news item gave an impression that the judges passed judgements on the directive of a former CJP, which was incorrect. Such a news item attempted to erode the confidence of the public and litigants in the IHC, he added.

The court asked Mr Zaidi to suggest any international journalist body and the court would appoint it as an amicus curiae to solicit a response on the issue of publishing a privileged document.

During the proceedings, Justice Minallah conveyed to Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Jawed Khan that Rana Shamim informed the court through an application that his grandson had despatched the original copy of the affidavit through a courier service on Dec 9.

On Dec 7, the IHC had directed Mr Shamim to produce the original affidavit and warned of framing charges in case of failure.

The AGP informed the court that the reply of Mr Shamim to the show-cause notice was self-explanatory in which the former GB chief justice admitted to executing the ‘contemptuous’ affidavit.

He, however, suggested that since Mr Shamim had termed the affidavit a privileged document and contradicted the reply submitted by Ansar Abbasi, the journalist and the media house might be asked to submit a counter-reply.

The court then adjourned the hearing till Dec 20.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2021