The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday disposed of a petition filed by journalist Imran Riaz Khan against his arrest, finding that the verdict did not fall within his jurisdiction and advised the petitioner to approach the Lahore High Court (LHC).
Khan was Arrested He was on his way to the federal capital to seek anticipatory bail from the IHC in a sedition case registered against him by the Attock police on the outskirts of Islamabad on Tuesday night.
Police Department Sources Told dawn That a detachment of Attock police, supported by a team of elite forces, took the journalist into custody and was taken to Attock City Police Station.
He said a case under section 505-1 (c) was registered against the journalist at the city police station on June 25. committing an offense against any other class or community), 505(2) (Whoever makes any statement or report containing rumor or dangerous news with the intention of causing or promoting feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religious , publishes or transmits, racial, language or regional group or caste or community), 501 (printing or engraving matter known as defamatory), and 109 (if act is abetted, punishment of abetment results and where no explicit provision has been made for its punishment) six different sections of the Pakistan Penal Code and the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016.
Later, the journalist also shared a video of himself at the time of his arrest, in which he can be seen sitting in his car surrounded by police officers. “You’ve got mine [bulletproof] Car and weapons, filed 20 FIRs against me, now you want to arrest me too, go ahead and arrest me,” he said as he got out of the car to surrender.
Soon after the incident was reported, a contempt petition was filed by Khan’s legal team at the IHC naming the police chiefs of Islamabad and Punjab as defendants. Acting late last night, Justice Athar Minallah had issued notices to Islamabad’s police chief and chief commissioner asking them to appear in the high court.
During the hearing today, Khan’s counsel argued that his client has been arrested from the Islamabad toll plaza. “At the LHC, the police had given us a report which said that 17 cases were registered against Riyaz.
“I have also filed a contempt petition in the LHC separately,” he said. “But the court was never told about the FIR lodged last night.”
Here, Justice Minallah remarked that each court has its own jurisdiction and the LHC can look into the matter. “The arrest of Imran Riyaz Khan in Attock does not fall within the jurisdiction of this court,” he said, adding that the IHC could not investigate the issues relating to Punjab.
The journalist’s counsel, however, argued that barring any arrests, the court’s orders were violated. He also said that Islamabad police had arrested Khan, not from Punjab.
The IHC chief justice reiterated, “The court had spoken about the arrest in Islamabad. Khan was arrested outside the jurisdiction of the court,” if the LHC ruled that the arrest was made in Islamabad, “you Can bring orders here”.
The court, later, disposed of the petition and directed the journalist to approach the LHC as it would be in their “best interest”.
recently Video The journalist had addressed Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa directly on his YouTube channel and alleged that he was threatened after questioning military sources about the current political and economic situation in the country.
There have been many cases in the last few months Lodged Khan, Arshad Sharif and Sabir Shakir for allegedly spreading hatred against the army and state institutions against senior pro-PTI journalists.
In May, Khan through his lawyer Mian Ali Ashfaq had filed two petitions in the LHC and received pre-arrest bail,