The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday indicted capital Deputy Commissioner (DC) Irfan Nawaz Memon and three others for contempt in a case pertaining to the prolonged detention of PTI leaders Shehryar Afridi and Shandana Gulzar under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) ordinance.<\/p>\n
Justice Babar Sattar presided over the hearing during which the court also indicted Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) operations Jamil Zafar, Superintendent of Police (SP) Farooq Buttar and Margalla Station House Officer (SHO) Nasir Manzoor.<\/p>\n
The development comes a day after the IHC stripped Islamabad\u2019s district magistrate of his powers to detain suspects under the MPO while hearing the same case.<\/p>\n
The PTI leaders had been held by the police in connection with the May 9 violence, with Afridi first arrested on May 16 and Gulzar taken into custody on August 9.<\/p>\n
On August 16, the IHC had allowed Afridi and Gulzar to be released and decided to indict the DC and SSP for contempt after deeming their responses to the court as \u201cunsatisfactory\u201d.<\/p>\n
A day prior to this, the IHC had also issued show-cause notices to the city police chief, chief commissioner and other police officials for \u201ccriminal contempt of court for abuse of authority to obstruct dispensation of justice and cause diversion to the course of justice\u201d.<\/p>\n
During today\u2019s proceedings, DC Memon furnished an unconditional apology and urged the court to not indict him. The DC and the three other officers denied the charge after they were indicted, with SSP Zafar seeking time to defend himself.<\/p>\n
At the outset of the hearing, Advocate General Ayaz Shaukat presented his arguments against indicting the officials. He urged the IHC to not indict them as the \u201cofficers have furnished an unconditional apology\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can we not indict them? The matter of contempt of court was under way here yet you issued an MPO order,\u201d Justice Sattar remarked.<\/p>\n
Addressing the officials, Justice Sattar said, \u201cIf you are sentenced, you will be sent to jail at the most.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a six-month sentence. You may also live in jail and see how those who you send to jail live there,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n
At this, the DC replied, \u201cThe aim of this [detention] order was not to violate the court order at all.\u201d He then furnished an unconditional apology to the court, which was rejected.<\/p>\n
Subsequently, DC Memon\u2019s indictment order was read out aloud and he was indicted.<\/p>\n
Then, the proceedings to indict SSP Zafar were initiated.<\/p>\n
Justice Sattar read out aloud the SSP\u2019s indictment order and he was charged with the offence, which he denied. At this, the IHC asked him if he wished to defend himself, for which he sought more time from the court.<\/p>\n
Similarly, SP Buttar and SHO Manzoor were also indicted \u2014 with them denying the charges as well \u2014 and the hearing was adjourned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday indicted capital Deputy Commissioner (DC) Irfan Nawaz Memon and three others for contempt in a case pertaining to the prolonged detention of PTI leaders Shehryar Afridi and Shandana Gulzar under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) ordinance. Justice Babar Sattar presided over the hearing during which the court […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-354381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national"},"yoast_head":"\n