ISLAMABAD: The principal law officer of the country extended an olive branch to former chief judge of Gilgit-Baltistan Rana Shamim on Tuesday as he asked him to become an “approver” to get himself exonerated in the affidavit case.

Meanwhile, the Islam­abad High Court (IHC) decided to indict all alleged contemnors on Jan 7 in the case which relates to the affidavit that accuses former chief justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar of manipulating judicial proceedings.

During the hearing of the contempt of court case against Mr Shamim, Editor-in-Chief of Jang Group Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman, Resident Editor of The News Aamir Ghouri and Editor Investigation Ansar Abbasi, Attorney General (AG) Khalid Jawed Khan said that the former GB top judge was the principal contemnor in the affidavit case.

The AG said that he had not been appointed a prosecutor in the case and he still considered Mr Shamim a respectable citizen. “I think he can clear his position even at this point of time.”

He then offered: “if he [Mr Shamim] is ready to tender an apology, admits that he was used as a pawn and discloses the name of the beneficiary, I would request the court to pardon him.”

Without mentioning a story published in an English daily that claimed that the affidavit was executed in the office of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah said that there was some development in this case as well.

On the other hand, Mr Shamim’s counsel Abdul Latif Afridi said that the news report had been contradicted and his client and Ansar Abbasi could file a contempt petition against the newspaper.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Shamim said that the affidavit was executed in the Notary Public office in London where no other person, including Mr Sharif, was present.

Syed Amjad Shah, representative of Pakistan Bar Council, suggested in the court that after Mr Shamim had submitted original copy of the affidavit, the court should seek a counter-affidavit from the former CJP.

Mr Abbasi argued that the case fell within the ambit of press freedom and expressed apprehension that any adverse verdict would be detrimental to the press freedom in Pakistan.

Justice Minallah said that he had never authored any judgement against the media freedom.

“I do not believe in powers of contempt”, remarked the IHC chief justice.

Mr Afridi referred to two judgements; one authored by Justice Minallah in the contempt proceedings against former information minister Dr Firdaus Ashiq Awan and another by the apex court against PTI leader Imran Khan in the 2014 contempt of court case; and recalled that in both cases the alleged contemnors were pardoned.

He requested the court to show restraint in the affidavit case as well.

However, Justice Minallah said that the affidavit had cast aspersions on all judges of the IHC. He referred to a pending petition of the Ministry of Law and Justice for implementation of the International Court of Justice order about Indian spy Kalbhushan Jadhav and said that if they created an impression that courts in Pakistan were compromised, how India could concede jurisdiction of Pakistani courts.

Mr Afridi responded that his client had no intention of committing contempt and was also unaware of consequences.

The court asked Resident Editor of The News Aamir Ghouri about publishing a report on the basis of an affidavit which was claimed to be a privileged document by the author.

Mr Ghouri responded that it was the responsibility of a journalist to file a story in public interest.

Justice Minallah reminded him that it was against international journalistic ethics if someone wrote a story to manipulate the pending proceeding.

The court postponed further hearing till Jan 7.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2021