Rana Shamim ‘deeply regrets the grave mistake.

ISLAMABAD   -   The former chief justice of Gilg­it-Baltistan (GB) Rana Shamim Mon­day submitted an unconditional written apology to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in a contempt of court case against him.

A single bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice of IHC Justice Athar Mi­nallah conducted hearing of the case and the former GB submitted his written reply through his lawyer Ab­dul Latif Afridi Advocate.

The court said in its written order that a reply had been filed by the al­leged contemnor (Rana Muhammad Shamim). However, it added, “In or­der to meet the ends of justice, it would be appropriate to give an op­portunity to the alleged contemnor to file an affidavit. The affidavit is directed to be filed before the date fixed.” Later, the bench deferred the hearing till September 19 for further proceedings in this matter.

The IHC bench had started the con­tempt of court proceeding against Rana Mohammad Shamim, former Chief Judge of the Supreme Appel­late Court of Gilgit-Baltistan and oth­ers after publication of a news item claiming that Rana Shamim execut­ed an affidavit in which he levelled allegations against former Chief Jus­tice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar.

During the hear­ing, Shamim’s law­yer Abdul Latif Afridi presented a written apology saying that the former GB top judge listened to former CJP Nisar’s views during a meeting with him over tea and he had heard the words ‘senior puisne judge’ time and again from the former CJP.

Rana stated that he was under ex­treme mental stress and was a seri­ous heart patient aged 72 when he wrote down his affidavit after ap­proximately three long years since the meeting that he mentioned above. He further said that that’s why he fell victim to a misunder­standing and wrote the name Justice Aamer by mistake instead of “senior puisne judge” in the affidavit.

The former GB judge continued that he now deeply regrets the grave mistake that he inadvertently made and sought an unconditional apol­ogy for it. Rana added that he has been showing regret and has been apologising for the misunderstand­ing on his part, since the start of pro­ceedings in the contempt case.

He maintained that he cannot even fathom of scandalising the very insti­tution he had served so dearly and with the utmost professionalism. The judge also said that he reiter­ates that no sitting judge of this hon­orable court involves in controver­sy mentioned above and he tenders unconditional apology to all sitting judges of this court for the grave mis­understanding and mistake on his part and place himself at the mercy of this court with humble request to graciously forgive him. At this, the IHC Chief Justice said that Shamim wants to apologise, however, he should first prove what was said in the affida­vit. He added that if he fails to prove it, then Rana Shamim should call it a misunderstanding and apologise and it would then be taken into con­sideration. He also remarked that the court would find what is true and that the court would not take any action against Shamim if he proved that he was right. He further remarked that if someone apologised in contempt case and also reflected it with his con­duct then the court did not consider continuing proceeding as it had no ego. The judge said that no one could influence it even if he was a chief justice. He made it clear that stand­ing with the affidavit and apology at same time could not stay together.