Pakistan ex-PM Imran Khan.
Imran Khan News: A court in Pakistan has dealt a big blow to former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday. The court has decided to frame the indictment against Imran Khan in the contempt of court case relating to his controversial remarks about a woman judge, terming his reply as “unsatisfactory”. During a rally in Islamabad earlier this month, Imran had warned of a case against top police officials, the Election Commission and political rivals over the treatment of his aide Shahbaz Gill, arrested on sedition charges.
What was Imran’s controversial statement?
Imran had also given a statement about Additional District and Sessions Judge Jeba Choudhary who had granted two days’ custody to Gill on the request of the police. He had said that ‘he (Chowdhary) should be ready as action will be taken against him’. Imran was booked under the Anti-Terrorism Act for threatening the police, judiciary and other institutions at his rally hours after the speech. Justice Aamer Farooq, while hearing a petition challenging Gill’s police custody, decided to initiate contempt proceedings against Imran.
Charges will be decided after 2 weeks
A 5-member bench of the Islamabad High Court headed by Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the contempt case. After hearing the arguments of the lawyers, the court reserved its decision whether to proceed with the contempt case or drop it. The judges discussed the matter during a short break. After this, the court said on the commencement of the proceedings that after two weeks the charges would be formally framed against Imran. During the first hearing on August 31, Imran appeared before the court, which expressed dissatisfaction with his written reply to the show-cause notice issued by the bench.
Imran’s reply rejected by the judges
Even after this, the court had given him a second chance to file an appropriate reply in writing. The supplementary reply submitted on Wednesday was not accepted by the bench as Imran had only expressed regret over his statement and did not apologize. Chief Justice Minallah said during the hearing that the reply to the show-cause notice appears to term the contempt of the judiciary as “reasonable” and shows “no remorse or remorse”. It is believed that after this decision of the court, Imran Khan’s problems may increase.
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