Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan, expressed “deep regret” over his “unintentional utterances” in an additional reply in response to the show-cause notice issued to him by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for threatening a judge Zeba Chaudhary during a rally in Islamabad on August 20.
However, the submitted reply fell short of offering an unconditional apology.
IHC on August 31 had directed the former Prime Minister to resubmit his response, giving him seven days to hand in the new draft.
During the proceedings, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah had said he was “disappointed” by the written response submitted by Khan. He asked him to review it and submit it once more.
In a 19-page-long document, Khan told the court that it should discharge the notice based on his explanation and follow the Islamic principles of forgiveness.
“That the purpose of the contempt law is not to punish anyone but to uphold the majesty of law. The respondent [Khan] believes in the rule of law and supremacy of the Constitution,” the response said.
“The respondent takes this opportunity to express his deep regrets over his unintentional utterances during the course of his speech at a rally which was taken out in response to the shocking news of the physical torture of Shahbaz Gill.”
PTI’s Chief of Staff, Shahbaz Gill, has been under arrest since August 9 for allegedly inciting mutiny within the Pakistan army. Gill has alleged that he was tortured while in custody.
In his resubmitted reply, Khan said that the utterances were “unintentional” and not meant to be directed towards the female judge for whom he has “a lot of respect”.
Khan said that he never meant to hurt her feelings and if her feelings have been hurt, it is deeply regretted.
“The respondent neither meant to threaten the lady judge nor could he think of doing so. The respondent has respect for the judiciary including the Subordinate judiciary and he believes that judges of the Subordinate/ District judiciary should be strong and independent in order to dispense justice to the common man,” the response added.
In the end, the PTI chairman appealed to the court to discharge the contempt notice issued to him.
