ISLAMABAD: The Isla­m­abad High Court (IHC) on Monday dismissed a petition seeking placement of former chief justice of Gilgit-Baltistan Rana Mohammad Shamim’s name on the Exit Control List (ECL).

The high court also rejected another petition by the applicant in which he sought to become a party in a contempt of court case against Mr Shamim.

The applicant, Supreme Court advocate Rai Mo­­h­am­mad Nawaz Kharal, filed two petitions. In one petition, he requested for becoming a party in the ongoing contempt of court proceedings against Mr Shamim, Jang Group’s chief editor Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman and senior journalists Ansar Abbasi and Aamir Ghauri.

In another petition, Mr Kharal sought a court directive for the federal government to place Mr Shamim’s name on the ECL.

Justice Shamim claimed in his Nov 16 affidavit that former chief justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar had asked an IHC judge to delay grant of bail to PML-N sup­remo Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz until after the 2018 general elections.

Advocate Kharal appea­r­­ed in person before IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah.

Justice Minallah noted that the nature of the proceedings under Article 204 of the Constitution, read with the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003, were confined to matters between the court and the alleged contemnor(s).

“As a corollary, a person other than an alleged contemnor cannot claim to be a necessary party to contempt proceedings. There is no provision in the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1898 pari materia [in a similar case] to the provisions contained in the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 regarding impleadment of a necessary or interested party,” Justice Minallah pointed out.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2021