ISLAMABAD: Former Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) chief judge Rana Mohammad Sha­­mim submitted an unco­nditional apology to the Islam­abad High Court (IHC) on Monday, saying none of the sitting jud­ges of the IHC were involved in engineering judicial proceedings in cases against the Sharif family.

Mr Shamim is facing a contempt case over his affidavit that alleged manipulation of court proceedings by ex-CJP Saqib Nisar in a case pertaining to Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz.

The affidavit had claimed that in 2018, then-CJP Nisar had manipulated the proceedings to delay the release of Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz through a “senior puisne” judge of the high court. Subsequently, contempt proceedings were initiated by the IHC.

In his response, Mr Shamim stated that not a single sitting judge of the IHC was involved in the controversy and sought pardon from all judges.

“I had heard the words senior puisne judge time and again from the CJP… [I] became victim of a misunderstanding and mistakenly wrote down the name of Mr Justice Aamer Farooq instead of senior puisne judge in the affidavit,” the former GB judge said in his response.

He, however, stood by the allegation against ex-CJP Nisar.

“The contents of the affidavit emanates from the sitting in which myself, my late wife, the former CJP Saqib Nisar along with his wife were present at my official residence when I was Chief Judge of Gilgit Baltistan Supreme Appellate Court … the former CJP on the first day of their stay while taking tea on the lawn of my residence, was trying to get connected with someone time and again, but when the said person could not be connected, then he directed his registrar to go and see him at his residence and tell him that Mian Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz Sharif should not come out on bail.”

“Since he could not be connected, therefore he directed the registrar to call him on WhatsApp as soon as possible. After some time, the then-CJP was connected to the person, he talked for [a] few minutes; thereafter he felt relaxed and said that he has spoken to the senior puisne judge and demanded another cup of tea.”

Mr Shamim said that his affidavit was executed in the “backdrop of [a] mentally stressful time” which “potentially resulted in blurring of memory and some grave misunderstanding (sic) which also translated into the writing of the affidavit”, which was later published by a newspaper.

Referring to his act of naming an IHC judge, he maintained: “Due to these circumstances, I inadvertently made this grave mistake, which I deeply regret now and unconditionally apologise for.”

During the course of the hearing, Abdul Latif Afridi, counsel for Mr Shamim, requested the court to consider the apology ‘genuine’. Justice Minallah remarked that the high court was “extremely magnanimous and ready to accept the apology, but it depends on the conduct of the alleged contemnor”.

The court, however, asked Mr Shamim to reconsider his unconditional apology and submit an affidavit on September 19, when the court would resume hearing in this matter.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2022