Rana Shamim contempt case: Will MSR appear before IHC today?

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) is likely to indict the accused in contempt of court case against the former chief judge of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) Rana Shamim today.

Yesterday, Rana Shamim had filed a miscellaneous petition in the IHC to change the prosecutor after raising a complaint of facing partiality.

It is pertinent to mention here that an accused in the contempt case, the owner of Jang Group Mir Shakilur Rehman had not appeared in the previous hearing after contracting COVID-19.

Later, the high court had adjourned the hearing for initiating the contempt proceedings against the accused till January 20 and stated that indictment proceedings will begin in the presence of all accused.

IHC reserves verdict on maintainability of petition filed by Rana Shamim’s family

Political analysts said that the miscellaneous petition was apparently filed to further defer the indictment of the accused. However, the court will decide on the maintainability of the plea. They also expressed surprise over a complete silence of senior journalists including Ansar Abbasi.

Original affidavit

Earlier on December 27, Rana Shamim had opened his original affidavit after confirming before the court that it was the same documents he sealed himself.

The revelations had been made in a ‘leaked’ affidavit that was published in a report of Ansar Abbasi, an investigative reporter of ‘The News’, on November 10 to which Shamim’s counsel admitted that the content of the ‘leaked’ affidavit was indeed accurate.

Rana Shamim had levelled serious allegations against ex-CJP Mian Saqib Nisar of committing judicial manipulation by making a call to an IHC judge in which he had asked him to deny bails to Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Quaid Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz besides seeking to ensure to keep them in prison until 2018 general elections.