Imran Khan’s speech led to contempt of court proceedings and the PTI chief offered that he was ready to apologise to the judge.

However, when Khan arrived at the court on Friday unannounced, the woman judge was not in her court.

“Tell Madam Zeba that Imran Khan had arrived here and wanted to apologise to her, if her feeling were hurt,” he told the reader and the court staff. “Please tell her from my side.”

The former prime minister was accompanied by his lawyer Babar Awan and other members of his legal team. One of the lawyers urged another court staff to apprise the female judge of the development. To this, Imran said, “Must tell her.”

Imran had turned up at Judge Zeba Chaudhry’s court after the district and sessions court in Islamabad approved his bail in a case pertaining to the violation of Section 144 (ban on the gathering of five or more people) during a rally in Islamabad in August.

Earlier, Khan had apologised to the Islamabad High Court to avoid the contempt indictment.

Read more: System takes a month to get apology from Imran Khan in contempt case

“I have never disrespected the court. I had talked about legal action [against the judge]. I will avoid such talk in the future,” he had told the court.

The contempt charges stemmed from a fiery speech Imran Khan made on August 20 at Islamabad’s F9 park, in which he threatened police officials and a judge who had approved a detention order against his chief of staff, Shahbaz Gill.

He told the gathering that his party would bring lawsuits against the female judge and senior Islamabad police officers for their roles in the alleged custodial torture of Gill.

“We will not spare you,” the PTI chief vowed and added that his party would take action against them.