A larger bench of the Islamabad High Court has given one week to PTI Chief Imran Khan for coming up with a more appropriate response in the contempt of court case against him.
Imran Khan appeared before the court in person on Wednesday, a day after his counsel Hamid Khan submitted a reply to the show-cause notice issued by the court. The PTI Chief offered to take back his ‘contemptuous’ words against Additional Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry but stopped short of offering an unconditional apology.
The court dismissed his response and has now given him another chance. It also downplayed the notion that judicial decisions could be influenced by amassing people outside courts.
Authorities in the federal capital installed barricades and barbed wires inside and outside the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for the high-profile hearing.
Imran Khan was represented by Hamid Khan while Babar Awan was also in the courtroom.
Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf represented the government. Additional Attorney General Munawar Iqbal is also there to assist him.
The five-member larger bench, comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri and Justice Babar Sattar began the hearing shortly after 2:3pm.
As the proceedings started, Imran Khan’s counsel Hamid Khan read out a written reply he submitted to the court a day earlier on the behalf of Imran Khan.
In his reply, Imran Khan said that he was ready to take back his words about Additional Sessions Judge Zeba Chauhdry if the court deemed them inappropriate. However, he stopped short of offering an unconditional apology.
The PTI Chief also maintained that he mistook Judge Zeba for a judicial magistrate.
