- Saqib Nisar alleges Shamim trying to settle scores as he rejected his request for extension
- Shamim says Saqib didn’t have powers to grant extension
- IHC serves contempt notices
ISLAMABAD: Former Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar Monday rubbished allegations leveled against him by former Chief Justice (CJ) of Gilgit-Balitistan Rana Shamim, terming the claims as ‘pack of lies’.
Talking to a private news channel, Saqib Nisar said the news item published against him was ‘far from truth and a pack of lies’.
“Rana Shamim asked me for extension of his tenure as CJ GB, which I didn’t approve,” Nisar said in counter claim, adding that Rana Shamim had complained once against for not being given an extension.
However, Shamim refuted the claim, saying that Saqib Nisar didn’t have powers to give extension to him.
It is to be noted that in a shocking revelation, former GB CJ had claimed that Saqib Nisar had told a high court judge to keep Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz Sharif in jail till the 2018 general elections. He also alleged that he had heard the conversation when the former CJP was visiting GB before the 2018 elections.
Justice (R) Saqib Nisar denied the claims and called the news a ‘self-motivated story’. “I have never spoken to anybody or any high court judge in connection to any matter related to Mr Sharif,” he asserted.
Fawad asks Sharifs to produce money trail
On the other hand, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry has asked the Sharif family to give money trail of Avenfield apartments’ purchase instead of fabricating stories. In a Twitter post, Fawad Chaudhry said he has read a strange news item.
Instead of fabricating silly stories and conspiracy theories, the Sharifs should provide a money trail for the Avenfield apartments, which were later given to Maryam Nawaz, he said.
IHC takes notice of controversial claim
Meanwhile, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday served a contempt of court notice of the media report and summoned journalist Ansar Abbasi, the editor-in-chief of Jang Group Mir Shakeelur Rehman, editor Aamir Ghouri and former GB judge Rana Shamim. AGP Khalid Jawed Khan has also been summoned to appear before the court.
The court fixed the case for hearing on Tuesday.
In its order, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah said the report “appeared to undermine public confidence in the impartiality and independence of this court and its honourable judges”.
He added that such a report being published at a time when the case was sub judice was the most serious form of contempt.
“Likewise, the aforementioned published report, prima facie, amounts to prejudicing public confidence in the administration of justice in a pending matter besides scandalizing this Court,” it added.
The court also directed the respondents to explain “why proceedings under the Contempt of Court Ordinance, 2003, may not be initiated against them under Article 204 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973.”
Rana Muhammad Shamim, former chief judge of Gilgit-Baltistan Supreme Appellate Court (SAC), claimed in an alleged affidavit that Mr Nisar ensured the father-daughter duo remains behind bars until the elections.
Mr Nisar had traveled to the mountainous region for vacations in 2018, the affidavit read. On one occasion, the judge appeared “very disturbed” while speaking to the Supreme Court registrar on the phone, asking him to get in touch with a high court judge.
Once able to get in touch with the judge, Mr Nisar ordered him that “Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz Sharif must remain in jail until the general elections are over. On assurances from the other side, he [Nisar] became calm and happily demanded another cup of tea.”
The other judge was not named in the affidavit.
The now-retired top judge said he could only remember speaking to Mr Shamim when he called him to offer condolences about the latter’s wife’s death.
Mr Shamim could have “any motive” for making the claims, he said.
The News reported Mr Shamim gave his statement under oath before the oath commissioner on November 10. The affidavit contained his signature and an image of his computerised national identity card (CNIC).
The article further said Mr Nisar categorically denied the allegations. Mr Shamim insisted he was witness to the incident that happened at the guest house of Gilgit-Baltistan court when Mr Nisar came on vacation.
He added when he asked the former chief justice why he conveyed such a message to the other judge, the now-retired top judge responded by saying: “Rana sahib! you won’t understand. You must treat it as if you never heard anything.”
When he further said that Mr Sharif had been falsely implicated, Mr Nisar said: “The chemistry of Punjab is different from [that of] Gilgit-Baltistan.”
AVENFIELD CASE JUDGEMENT:
In July 2018, an accountability court ruled that Mr Sharif and his family laundered money in the 1990s to pay for four luxury apartments in Park Lane, central London, drawing on allegations that resurfaced in the 2016 Panama Papers.
Accountability Court judge Mohammad Bashir sentenced Ms Nawaz to seven years’ imprisonment, fined the family £10m and ordered the seizure of the Avenfield properties. She also received an additional one-year sentence for presenting forged documents in court.
The family has long struggled to explain how the Avenfield flats came into their possession. Family members initially told different stories. During the National Accountability Bureau trial, Mr Sharif’s defence claimed that a Qatar investment fund gave the expensive properties to the family to repay a debt owed to Mr Sharif’s father, Mian Muhammad Sharif.
Commentators in 2017 mocked a letter from a Qatar prince apparently testifying to that deal as a rabbit pulled out of a hat.
Mr Sharif and members of his family have denied any wrongdoing, and supporters claim the charges against them are politically motivated.
