ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) once again directed a former Gilgit-Baltistan chief judge to submit a written response in a case pertaining to a news report on an affidavit accusing former chief justice Saqib Nisar of bias against members of the Sharif family.
Rana Muhammad Shamim, long-associated with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), in November claimed in the document notarized in London that Nisar did not want deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz to be released on bail ahead of the general elections in July 2018.
The two were convicted in a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reference related to their ownership of four multi-million-dollar London apartments weeks before the elections on July 25. When their counsels moved the high court for suspension of the conviction, the case was adjourned until the last week of July.
According to the contents of the document, made public in a story published in The News, Nisar had travelled to the mountainous region of Gilgit-Baltistan for vacations ahead of the elections. On one occasion, he appeared “very disturbed” while speaking to the Supreme Court registrar on the phone, asking him to get in touch with an unnamed judge of the IHC.
Once able to get in touch with the said judge, Nisar ordered him that “Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz Sharif must remain in jail until the general elections are over”.
IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah took notice of the report and subsequently initiated contempt proceedings. Apart from Shamim, The News Editor Aamir Ghauri, its reporter Ansar Abbasi and Jang Group chief Mir Shakeel ur-Rehman were also nominated in the case.
Shamim was indicted in the case on January 20 while the court deferred the framing of charges against the journalists and Rehman.
