Hard to survive criminal contempt charge

KARACHI: While some legal experts believe PTI Chairman Imran Khan should apologise for his comments against a woman judge, others maintain he will find it hard to survive the charge despite an apology.

Shahzeb Khanzada said this in Geo News programme Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath. He said the notice stated that Imran’s remarks had been made with the motive of “undermining the integrity and credibility of the judicial system in the eyes of public at large”.

Shahzeb said the Contempt of Court Ordinance 2003 defines the contempt as (a) civil contempt (“the wilful flouting or disregard of (i) an order, whether interim or final, a judgment or decree of a court (ii) a writ or order issued by a court in the exercise of its constitutional jurisdiction (iii) an undertaking given to, and recorded by, a court (iv) the process of a court.”), (b) criminal contempt (“the doing of any act with intent to, or having the effect of, obstructing the administration of justice.”), and (c) judicial contempt (“the scandalization of a court and includes personalized criticism of a judge while holding office.”)

He said that criminal contempt is considered grave and Imran’s statement could attract this clause of the ordinance. Shahzeb said the courts are generally lenient towards civil and judicial contempt, but chances of conviction under the criminal contempt are higher.

He said retired Justice Shah Khawar, retired Justice Nasira Javed Iqbal and retired Justice Rasheed A. Razvi had advised Imran to tender an unconditional apology, while noting that even a minor penalty would render him disqualified for five years.

On the contrary, Shahzeb said, Fawad Chaudhry has said that Imran would contest his case instead of submitting an apology.

Shahzeb said Imran Khan has been criticising Judicial Magistrate Zeba Chaudhry and stating that torture had been proved in the court. Shahzeb said that no medical report had been submitted to her while the high court had ordered a probe into the torture allegations.

Shahzeb said that Imran did not talk about “neutrals” in his Haripur and Lahore addresses. Speaking in the programme, senior analyst Hamid Mir, who met Imran Khan earlier, said that Imran believes an attempt has been made to knock him out technically by securing a statement from Shahbaz Gill.

Mir said that Imran claimed he knew who was behind all this. Mir quoted him as saying, “They won’t be able to blackmail or pressure me.” Mir said he felt Imran was ready to face any situation as he believes some decision had already been taken against him somewhere. Mir said it was surprising to note that Imran, being the prime minister, claimed he was not aware of attacks on senior journalist Absar Alam and Asad Toor.