A court in Rawalpindi on Wednesday ordered the production of journalist Imran Riaz Khan in a local court in Attock and directed that the charges against him under sections of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016 be quashed.
Imran 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.
Imran was brought to the Rawalpindi judicial complex today in the court of Judicial Magistrate Muhammad Pervez Khan, who was presiding over the hearing of a petition filed by the journalist against his arrest.
By order of the court a copy of which is available with don.comMalik Sikandar, an assistant director (legal) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), informed the judge that the offenses mentioned in the first information report against Imran were “not actually made out” and that the police had wrongly filed an FIR. PECA Section.
Sikandar further informed the court that no offense has been committed as per the sections of the PECA and the FIA does not have the privilege to investigate the matter further.
The order said that after considering the opinion of Sikandar, the court is not empowered to consider the matter of Imran’s remand and directed the investigating officer to produce the journalist in the concerned court at Attock.
Earlier during the court hearing, the magistrate said that the case was eligible in his court as he was the judge of the cases relating to the FIA.
Imran’s lawyer Mian Ali Ashfaq said the journalist’s arms license and bulletproof vehicle license have been cancelled. He said that Imran was granted protective bail by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and yet, the journalist was arrested last night by the Attock police at the Islamabad toll plaza.
He said the toll plaza is on the border between Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
It should be mentioned here that the Lahore High Court had accepted journalist Imran’s plea for protective bail in May after several sedition cases were filed against him.
Ashfaq continued that a petition was filed at the IHC last night against the arrest and Imran was produced before a local Attock court earlier today.
The lawyer said that during the hearing of the case at Attock, the judge had remarked how he could preside when sections of PECA are involved. Ashfaq said that the judge had questioned the police as to how they could invoke sections of the PECA.
Ashfaq also hit out at the petitioner of the FIR in Attock and asked who had appointed him as the spokesperson of the army. “Questing the army’s policies is not anti-national at all,” he said, adding that if the army had any problem with Imran, he himself would have filed a case, as he did against activist and lawyer Iman Mazari.
After this the judicial magistrate questioned the police as to how Imran could be produced before him. “How can I hear the matter when this FIR cannot even be brought before me?” The judge questioned.
Ashfaq said that the Attock court had sent him to the judicial magistrate’s court saying it was within his jurisdiction to hear the matter. “Is there anyone who wants to take the matter further?” he questioned.
The lawyer requested the court to quash the case against Imran.
IHC disposes of Imran’s plea
Police said a case under section 505-1(c) was registered against the journalist at Attock 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) Pakistan Penal Code and six different PECA sections.
Later, PTI’s Farooq Habib shared a video of the journalist 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 Imran’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, Imran’s lawyer argued that his client has been arrested from Islamabad toll plaza. “At LHC, the police had given us a report stating 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 had its own jurisdiction and the LHC could 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 Imran was arrested by Islamabad police, not Punjab.
“The court had talked about the arrest in Islamabad. Imran was arrested outside the jurisdiction of the court, “IHC Chief Justice reiterated, if LHC ruled that arrest was made in Islamabad, you can bring order here”.
The court, later, disposed of the petition and directed the journalist to approach the LHC as it would be in their “best interest”.
Earlier, Imran had filed two petitions in the LHC through his lawyer and received pre-arrest bail,
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.
Amnesty International South Asia took note of the trend in a tweet today and urged officials to “stop punishing voices of dissent”.
“Amnesty International is concerned by the news of the arrest of journalist Imran Riaz Khan and urges the authorities to stop punishing voices of dissent, as has been a worrying trend in Pakistan for many years.”
The organization highlighted that over the past few weeks journalists have gone missing, faced politically motivated allegations and even violent attacks on them just for doing their jobs. It said, “Journalism is not a crime and it should be stopped as such.”
call for protest
In a tweet today, former Prime Minister Imran Khan urged the public to protest against the journalist’s arrest and “ongoing violence and targeting of journalists”.
“Those who support democracy and the right to freedom of expression enshrined in our constitution should come out and protest against the arrest of Imran Riyaz Khan and targeting of journalists including Ayaz Amir and many others and to stop the violence And critical voices should be silenced. ,” They said.
The PTI president said that unless we all unite and stand against this fascism, it will be the end of democracy and freedom in Pakistan.
Separately, at a press conference later in the day, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry called the “kidnapping” of the journalist and leader of the Sindh opposition. Haleem Adil Sheikh Pointed to the “rise of fascism” in the country.
Speaking to the media in Islamabad along with Shireen Mazari, he said, “As Imran Khan had said earlier, this has never been seen before even during martial law.” He also questioned the role of Rangers in these incidents and called upon them to “act according to the law”.
He said the current impression was being given that the police were merely “puppets”, adding: “I think the Rangers have given us an explanation.”
Chowdhury said that photographs that surfaced after Imran’s arrest showed that he was subjected to violence, which he termed as “unacceptable”. He urged the nation to join PTI and come out on the streets against these “fascist moves”.
Meanwhile, Mazari said that Pakistan has become a fascist country after the regime change campaign. He said that the party has full respect for the institutions of the country but people have the right to ask questions.
He called on the media to stand up against such incidents, saying: “Tomorrow, it could be one of you.”