Imran Khan says he would never do anything in future that would hurt dignity of any Court & judiciary, especially the lower judiciary
ISLAMABAD, Oct 01 (SABAH): Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan for the third time, avoided tendering an unconditional apology in a contempt case for threatening Additional District and Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry as he submitted his response to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Saturday.
In the affidavit, the former premier assured the court that he would never do anything in future that would hurt the dignity of any court and the judiciary, especially the lower judiciary. The PTI chief also said that he will fully follow what he said before the court in the last hearing and added that he is ready to take further action to satisfy the court in this regard.
It is written in the affidavit: I, Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi, son of late Ikram Ullah Khan Niazi, Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, respondent herein, resident of Banigala, Islamabad, do herby state on oath as under:
That the deponent as the Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf during the last 26 years, has been struggling hard for the rule of law, respect and independence of the judiciary in Pakistan and that, unlike other political leaders, the deponent has always spoken for the rule of law in every public gathering.
That the deponent realized during these proceedings before the Honourable Court that the deponent might have crossed a red line while making public speech on 20 August 2022. The deponent never intended to threaten the Hon’ble Judge of the District Court and that there was no intention behind the statement to take any action other than a large action.
That the deponent wants to assure this Honourable Court that the deponent is willing to explain and clarify before the Hon’ble Judge of the District Court that neither he nor his party seeks/sought any action against the Hon’ble Judge and the deponent is willing to apologize to the Hon’ble Judge if she got an impression that the deponent had crossed a line.
That the deponent wants to assure this Hon’ble Court that he would never do anything in future that would hurt the dignity of any Court and the judiciary, especially the lower judiciary.
That the deponent is willing to take any further steps that this Hon’ble Court deems necessary and appropriate for the satisfaction of this Hon’ble Court that he never intended to interfere with the process of the Court or impugn the dignity or independence of the judiciary.
That whatever is stated above is substantially the statement made by the deponent before this Hon’ble Court on the last date of hearing on 22 September 2022, and that he stand by and reiterates the said statement and once again assure this Hon’ble Court that he would always abide by the afore-referred statement, in letter and spirit.
In his first response to the IHC’s show-cause notice in the case, the PTI chairman did not apologise, offering, however, to withdraw his remarks “if they were inappropriate”.
In his second response, which was a 19-page-long document, the PTI chairman seemingly opted to tell the court that it should discharge the notice based on his explanation and follow the Islamic principles of forgiveness.
However, in both responses, the PTI chairman did not offer an unconditional apology, which forced the IHC to set a date for framing charges against Khan.
In the hearing on September 22, when the court was about to frame charges against Khan, he dodged them by apologising to the IHC and gained more time.
It is worth mentioning here that the decision to initiate contempt proceedings against Imran was taken by the IHC’s Justice Aamer Farooq on August 22 while hearing a petition challenging Gill’s police remand. The court had summoned Imran on August 31 and subsequently issued him a show-cause notice.
A day before the hearing, the former prime minister had submitted a reply before the IHC wherein he had expressed his willingness to “take back” his words about Judge Chaudhry if they were “regarded as inappropriate”. He had pleaded before the IHC that the judges who had agreed to initiate the case against him should consider withdrawing themselves from the bench as, according to him, they had pre-judged the matter.
However, the IHC had deemed the response to be “unsatisfactory” and asked the PTI chief to submit a “well-considered” response.
Following this, Imran had submitted another reply to the court. In the revised response, Imran had stopped short of rendering an unconditional apology.
On September 8, the IHC had decided to indict Imran, once again calling his response “unsatisfactory”.
However, at the next hearing on September 22, when it was expected that charged would be framed against the PTI chief, Imran had offered to tender an apology to Judge Chaudhry and escaped the indictment.
Following his statement in the court, the larger bench hearing the case had said: “We are, prima facie, satisfied with the apology rendered by the respondent. Let him file an affidavit for consideration of this court before the next date is fixed.”
Before submitting the affidavit on Saturday, Imran Khan appeared before an Islamabad sessions court to personally apologise to Judge Chaudhry on Friday, but his apology was left hanging as the judge was on leave.
In her absence, Imran Khan left a message for her with the court reader, Choudhry Yasir Ayaz. “I have come to apologise to judicial magistrate Zeba Chaudhry,” he could be heard saying to the court reader in a video shared by the PTI on Twitter. “You have to tell Madam Zeba Chaudhry that Imran Khan had visited and wanted to apologise if his words hurt her sentiments,” he said.