PESHAWAR: One of the two journalists who were convicted on contempt of court charges in Gilgit in Northern Areas on May 24, was released Thursday under remission granted by the President of Pakistan.
Witnesses said Iman Shah was warmly greeted by his journalist-colleagues when he stepped out of the Gilgit prison and taken in a procession to the town. He and Raja Hussain Khan were sentenced to three and six months’ imprisonment by Justice Zeenat Khan, chairman of the chief court of Northern Areas, for committing contempt of his court.
Iman Shah won his freedom when President Rafiq Tarar granted three months’ remission to all the prisoners in the country as part of celebrations marking the first anniversary of Pakistan’s nuclear tests on May 28. Raja Hussain Khan, however, would have to spend another three months in prison. Lawyers and journalists in Gilgit were preparing a mercy petition on his behalf for submission to Justice Zeenat Khan to seek his release.
As the constitutional status of the Northern Areas in Pakistan is still to be determined, its population have no rights under the country’s constitution. Thus the two convicted journalists couldn’t appeal against the judgement of the Northern Areas’ chief court in the Supreme Court of Pakistan or make a mercy petition to the country’s president.
Raja Hussain Khan as chief editor of Urdu weekly, K-2, and Iman Shah as its reporter were accused by Justice Zeenat Khan of ridiculing his judgement to vacate a stay order against enforcement of income tax by the government in Northern Areas. The stay was obtained by certain Northern Areas traders on the plea that the Northern Areas were beyond the jurisdiction of Pakistan’s constitution. When Justice Zeenat Khan was made the chairman of the chief court, he vacated this and other stay orders because they had expired after the required six-months period and there was a legal requirement for obtaining fresh stay from the court. The judge took suo moto notice of the news items and editorial appearing in weekly, K-2, which is named after the second highest mountain of the world located in Northern Areas, and conducted proceedings against the two journalists for three months before convicting them on contempt of court charges.
Shortly after his release, Iman Shah told The News from Gilgit that he and Raja Hussain Khan were kept with common prisoners in absence of a better class in the prison. He said Northern Areas’ deputy chief executive, Pir Karam Ali Shah, and Gilgit’s deputy commissioner had met them in jail to tell them that they were unable to help them in view of their conviction by the court. Iman Shah, who now reports for Urdu daily, Ausaf, argued that he and Raja Hussain Khan had apologised to the judge in the court on the day of their conviction but even then were sentenced and jailed. “We didn’t malign the court’s judgement and there was no deliberate attempt on our part to commit contempt of court”, argued the 30 year old journalist.
Journalists in Gilgit agreed with Iman Shah’s contention. “The inexperience of the two young journalists is largely to blame for publishing the report in a manner which Justice Zeenat Khan found contemptuous to the court. It is the first time in Pakistan that journalists have not only been convicted on contempt of court charges but also sent to jail,” opined senior Gilgit journalist, Saadat Ali Mujahid.
Source: The News
Date:6/4/1999
