ISLAMABAD    -    Pakistan Tehreek-e-In­saf (PTI) chairman Im­ran Khan is now in se­rious trouble after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) decided to in­dict him in contempt of court proceedings for giving controversial re­marks against a female judge of the Islamabad district judiciary. Though nobody can guess what would be the fate of this much-hyped case, it is crystal clear that these legal proceedings pose a serious threat to the political career of cricket­er-turned politician at a time when he is riding a tide of popularity. For PTI chief, the conviction in this case means disqualification from holding any pub­lic office for five years. Before this, the Supreme Court had disqualified the then sitting prime minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani for five years in a contempt of court case against him in 2012. In response to the show cause notice, is­sued to Khan in the contempt of court proceedings by the IHC, the former prime minister regretted passing re­marks about the Additional District & Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry at his party’s rally in Islamabad. However, he stopped short of tendering an uncondi­tional apology before the court—one of the reasons that the court apparent­ly has decided to frame charges against him. Legal experts are of the view that the decision of the court to indict any person means that the former is con­vinced that the latter has committed the offence—a justification that the contempt case is now being considered as serious in its nature.