What did a former Chief Justice do to extend his tenure?
How influential was Rana Shamim’s recommendation to appoint him as the Chief Judge
Important revelations by former law minister, Barrister Zafarullah Khan.
Rana Shamim was the Chief Justice of Gilgit-Baltistan, and he was in contact with me. I’ll tell you today; I think it’s time to reveal these things.
He kept requesting me to extend his term. I was in the Ministry of Law at the time. He used to send messages and call me directly. Rana Shamim kept asking for a 3-year extension. I discussed this at the Prime Minister’s House. Fawad Hassan Fawad was there. We were both a bit stubborn, everyone knows that. Together, we decided not to give him the extension. We did not do it, and listen, we were making the GB order, the one from 2017. He took its draft and issued a stay order. I was called by the Cabinet and National Security Council. General Bajwa was sitting there, and General Zubair Hayat was present too. I said, “If the court in Timbuktu calls you, will you go?” No, I said, “This is Timbuktu for us.” We passed that order, and he issued warrants against me. He sent the police to my house 14 times. I didn’t go. He sent Fawad in handcuffs, but Fawad said, “What’s my fault? The Cabinet decided this.” So, he released Fawad. The person who recommended him was Rana Maqbool. He had arranged for Rana Shamim’s appointment through Nawaz Sharif. I had opposed it back then as well. I told everyone, and the message from there saved us.
The matter of extending a judge’s tenure became such a big topic in Nawaz Sharif’s Cabinet that it even led to the issuing of warrants for the Principal Secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad and Special Assistant for Law, Barrister Zafarullah Khan. The importance of this judge was not fully realized at the time of the extension discussion, but an important incident later unfolded that exposed everything.
In January 2022, Rana Shamim made headlines in a case of defaming the judiciary. He recorded an affidavit in London, claiming that in 2018, then Chief Justice Saqib Nisar ordered the Supreme Court Registrar to meet Islamabad High Court Judge Amir Farooq and tell him that Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz should not be granted bail in their corruption cases before the 2018 elections.
This affidavit was clearly in favor of Nawaz Sharif and Maryam, and the news was published by the pro-Sharif family group, the Jang Group of Newspapers. This led to a summons for Jang Group’s owner Mir Shakil-ur-Rehman, Editor Ameer Ghauri, and reporter Ansar Abbasi. Rana Shamim later retracted his affidavit and apologized to the Islamabad High Court, which ended the case.
Former Chief Justice Saqib Nisar also commented on this news, mentioning the extension. He said, “Rana Shamim, as Chief Justice of Gilgit-Baltistan, had asked for an extension, which I did not approve. Once, he even complained to me about not granting him the extension.”
Rana Shamim is from Sahiwal, Punjab. He served as Chief Judge of the Gilgit-Baltistan Appellate Court from September 2015 to September 2018. Did he meet the standards for this position? That’s another story. In reality, the Appellate Court itself does not have constitutional status; it is an office created through an executive order, and anyone can be appointed to it. That’s why the strongest recommendation is often the determining factor for appointing the Chief Judge. When Rana Shamim didn’t get the extension, it was, in a way, a victory for merit. But after him, Haq Nawaz was appointed Chief Judge, who was also a retired judge and had served in the Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Court before retirement.
Rana Shamim’s controversial role was also misrepresented in media reporting, where he was introduced as the former Chief Justice of Gilgit-Baltistan, though he was from Sialkot and had served as the Chief Judge of the Gilgit-Baltistan Appellate Court.
Rana Shamim had served as a judge at the Sindh High Court from November 2007 to August 2009. He was among the dozens of judges appointed under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) after the emergency imposed by former President Pervez Musharraf. After the restoration of the judiciary in Pakistan, all these judges were removed by the Supreme Court on July 31, 2009, following a constitutional petition by the Supreme Court Bar.
Another controversial chapter in Rana Shamim’s career came when he was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the Benazir Bhutto University of Law in Karachi in 2019 for a three-year term, but he never stepped foot in the university during his entire tenure.