ISLAMABD: The Islamabad High Court on Wednesday imposed a fine of Rs10,000 on a petitioner seeking disqualification of Prime Minister Imran Khan and Minister for Interior Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah also dismissed the petition for being frivolous.

Petitioner Fidaullah Marwat was seeking disqualification of Imran Khan and Sheikh Rashid on the basis of their public speeches after Yousuf Raza Gilani secured a Senate seat by defeating Abdul Hafeez Sheikh. In their speeches, they talked about horse trading and bribe during the Senate election.

“The plain reading of the memorandum shows that no legitimate ground has been raised to entertain the petition. The assertions made in the memorandum of petition makes it obvious that the petitioner is seeking roving inquiry. The petitioner before filing of the petition had not sought professional legal advice,” the court noted. The court observed that filing such petitions was not in public interest because they wasted the precious time of other litigants and exposed judicial forums to unwarranted political content.

Meanwhile, Senator Waleed Iqbal, the counsel for Prime Minister Imran Khan, sought time to respond to a petition filed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Khawaja Mohammad Asif.

IHC dismisses plea demanding probe into allegations levelled in GB ex-judge’s affidavit against former CJP

Khawaja Asif had filed the petition in the IHC last week challenging the closing of his right to cross-examine PM Khan in a defamation suit the latter had moved against him for expressing doubt about financial transparency of Shaukat Khanam Memorial Trust (SKMT).

The IHC chief justice had stayed the proceedings on the defamation suit pending before an additional district and sessions judge. Mr Iqbal told the court that since PM Khan had signed his wakalatnama a day earlier, he could not prepare the arguments.

Justice Minallah accepted the request and adjourned the hearing till January 20.

PM Khan had filed the defamation suit against Mr Asif in 2012 for recovery of Rs10 billion as the PML-N stalwart levelled allegations of misappropriation of and money laundering in SKMT funds.

In his suit, Imran Khan referred to a press conference held on August 1, 2012, in which the PML-N leader alleged that the PTI chief had lost a huge amount in real estate gambling, which was donated to SKMT in the form of Zakat, Fitrana and other forms of donations.

Affidavit case

The IHC chief justice dismissed a petition filed by the daughter-in-law and grandchildren of former chief judge of Gilgit-Baltistan Rana Mohammad Shamim, seeking constitution of a commission to probe the allegations levelled in the ex-judge’s affidavit that former chief justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar had manipulated judicial proceedings.

The court noted that such unfounded and misconceived aspersions cast on the independence of this court and its judges for extraneous reasons, were definitely not in public interest because they eroded the confidence of people in the administration of justice.

“Moreover, it has profound consequences for the litigants and their right to fair trial. Independence and impartiality of a court and its judges is not tested on the basis of misconceived and motivated narratives but, rather, manifested through its judgements,” the court order said.

Justice Minallah noted that the petitioners were not aggrieved in this matter nor they were authorised by Rana Shamim to file the petition, hence the court dismissed the case accordingly.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2022