The Islamabad High Court on Friday adjourned the hearing of a contempt of court case against former chief judge of Gilgit-Baltistan Rana Shamim and several journalists till January 20.
The IHC had in the last hearing decided to indict the former GB chief judge and others in a contempt of court case pertaining to the publication of an affidavit containing serious allegations that ex-chief justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar attempted to influence a case against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter, Maryam Nawaz.
At the outset of the proceedings, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah told journalist Ansar Abbasi that the court had received his plea of a clerical error in the order.
“Tell me, what clerical error is there in the order?” The journalist told the IHC Chief Justice that in the order, the court had quoted him as saying that even if a claim was wrong, he would publish it in the interest of the masses.
Responding to the journalist, the IHC Chief Justice said: “In your application, you yourself had written that you were not aware whether his (Shamim’s) claim against Nisar was true or not.”
The judge asked Abbasi whether he would publish an affidavit solely on the basis of a prominent personality handing it to him. “The prevalent narrative is that Saqib Nisar had influenced a judge in a case.
