Tag: Mir Shakeelur Rehman

  • Contempt of court against Rana Shamim and journalists in affidavit case

    Contempt of court against Rana Shamim and journalists in affidavit case

    Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court (IHC), Athar Minallah has observed that former chief judge Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) Rana Shamim and journalists appeared to have committed contempt of court.

    The journalists include editor-in-Chief of the Jang Media Group Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman, and senior journalists Ansar Abbasi and Aamir Ghauri in connection with a news report about an affidavit that accused former Chief Justice (CJ) of Pakistan Saqib Nisar of trying to delay the release from prison of former Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz.

    The court said the news report [in The News] was published without taking reasonable care.

    Additionally, the IHC also appointed Attorney General (AG) for Pakistan Khalid Javed as the prosecutor in the case, reports Dawn.

    Editor Aamer Ghauri and reporter Ansar Abbasi argued that they had published the news report in the public interest. In reply, the order stated that freedom of expression did not apply to the cases pending in the courts.

    “It appears that the reporter had not sought any legal advice regarding the status of a copy of a leaked document in the form of an affidavit,” said the order.

    However, Shamim and others have been asked to appear in court on January 7 for prosecution in the contempt of court case.

  • Woman employed by in-laws of Pakistani media mogul alleges labour trafficking

    Rehana Bibi, who was reportedly hired by Geo/Jang CEO Mir Shakilur Rahman as a servant for his sister-in-law’s family in Virginia, has accused the Yahya family, whose home and children she cared for, and their Pakistan relatives, Mir Shakil and others, of engaging in human trafficking, according to a report in The Washington Post.

    Bibi has filed a case in a federal court in Alexandria, seeking damages. The case is in its early stages as of now, the US-based media outlet reported.

    Bibi was promised a “well-paying job as a maid” in Virginia, but after arriving in the US in 2013, she “spent the next five years effectively trapped in a Loudoun County home”.

    In a response submitted in the court by the Yahya family, they said the allegations are “as reprehensible as they are false”.

    “The conditions Bibi described would not amount to human trafficking,” the newspaper quoted the lawyer as saying. “Taking the allegations in the light most favorable to her, Ms Bibi was oppressed, not trapped,” he told the court.

    Mayfield notes that Bibi “was able to leave the first time she tried” and argues that “enduring unpleasant working conditions does not make someone a victim of trafficking or false imprisonment.”

    BIBI’s ORDEAL:

    Bibi, who has applied for asylum in the US because of potential threats she may face in Pakistan, told The Washington Post that she was considering suicide due to the treatment meted out by the Yayhas.

    “I have not seen anybody in my life, not even in Pakistan . . . treat anyone like that,” she said, adding her employer barred her from visiting Pakistan to attend the marriage of her daughters. “I couldn’t even watch the weddings on the family’s iPad.”

    The report said: “She slept on a mattress on the basement floor and kept her belongings in her suitcase, according to the complaint; for the first two years, she says, she was in a storage room infested with insects.”

    “Bibi maintains that she was confined because she spoke almost no English and was told she was in the country illegally. The visa she came to the country on was good for only one year. She says the family almost never let her out alone and warned her that if she went to the police, she would be arrested.”

    “I still have a lot of back pain from carrying heavy loads for the family. She also has gaps in her smile from the teeth she lost during her service,” she told the Post. “I was scared all the time,” she said. “I cannot forget these memories.”