IHC initiates contempt of court proceedings against CDA Member Estate

ISLAMABAD  – The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has initiated contempt of court proceedings against Capital Devel­opment Authority (CDA) Member Estate Zaman Wattoo for failing to appear before the court citing ill­ness and directed him to submit a reply within seven days.

A single bench of IHC compris­ing Chief Justice of IHC Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dog­ar rejected Wattoo’s request for an unconditional apology during the hearing of the contempt case.

Wattoo appeared before the court alongside his counsel, CDA lawyer Nazir Jawad.

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The IHC Chief Justice observed that the contempt proceedings would be dealt with first, while the main petition would be heard later. He also directed the prosecu­tor to appear fully prepared at the next hearing.

Referring to the previous hearing, the chief justice said the court had recorded that Wattoo had appeared before another court but had failed to appear before his court.

The lawyer argued that Wat­too had not claimed that he was ill. He explained that the CDA offi­cial had appeared before the oth­er court because he expected to be free sooner.

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Justice Dogar questioned wheth­er the court’s previous order was incorrect and expressed displea­sure over what he described as a failure to show due respect to the court, despite Wattoo having com­pleted 60 years of service.

Counsel for the petitioner, Hasnain Theem, told the court that Wattoo had accompanied the CDA chairman with his protocol team when he was summoned by the court. He alleged that Wattoo had cited illness before the IHC but had appeared elsewhere to at­tend to the chairman.

CDA counsel sought an uncondi­tional apology on behalf of Wattoo. The court directed the CDA mem­ber to submit his reply in the con­tempt proceedings and adjourned the hearing for one week.

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