In two similar instances involving access to imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan, two judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) rendered divergent decisions.
In response to a plea submitted by Noreen Niazi, the sister of Imran Khan, IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq ordered the jail administration to allow her to visit her brother on October 26 as soon as the security-related prohibition on inmate meetings is removed.
On the other hand, during the hearing of a petition by a lawyer seeking a contempt case against the jail superintendent for denying access to the former prime minister, Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan ordered the jail officials to bring Imran Khan in court. Due to security concerns, the prison administrator informed the court that meetings were prohibited until October 25.
Justice Khan emphasized that the court’s authority is paramount during the hearing and stated that security concerns would not be accepted as a legitimate excuse to bar the PTI leader from appearing.
The judge gave government representatives and jail administrator’s instructions to make sure Mr. Khan’s court attendance was adequately secured.
Justice Khan stated, “This notification is a violation of my orders,” implying that it was contempt of court to deny Imran Khan’s legal team a meeting on the grounds of security concerns. He gave staff instructions to provide a security report outlining the reasons why Mr. Khan’s attorneys were denied entry.
Jail officials quickly set up a meeting between Mr. Khan and his legal representatives in response to the court’s order.
Chief Justice Farooq, meantime, accepted the jail officials’ justification and requested that they set up a meeting between Imran Khan and his sister as soon as the ban on inmate meetings is removed.
While pointing out the disparities in how these identical cases were handled, legal experts also noted that the government’s legal team had not done enough to support Justice Khan’s bench.
They recommended that the government’s lawyer should have cited a decision that outlined the parameters of contempt of court legislation and was made by a two-judge panel of the Lahore High Court (LHC), which was composed of Justices Ayesha Malik and Jawad Hassan.
