ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) issued notices to former Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa (retd) and ex-ISI chief Lt General Faiz Hameed (retd) and others in a petition seeking registration of a case against them for allegedly “misrepresenting events”.
A single bench of Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, on Monday, issued notices to the respondents after hearing a petition seeking action against them for allegedly violating laws pertaining to retired servicemen by distorting facts of various events during media interviews.
A petitioner, Syed Muhammad Atif Ali, filed the writ petition for directions to the director general FIA to register a criminal case against the former army chief and DG ISI while he also sought a media ban on certain items. He cited DG FIA, chairman PEMRA, Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA), Press Association of Pakistan, journalists Javed Chaudhary and Shahid Maitla, former army chief General Bajwa and former DG ISI Lt Gen Faiz Hameed as respondents.
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In his written order, the IHC chief justice said that through the instant petition, the petitioner sought direction to respondent No. 1 (the DG FIA) to take action on his application qua registration of a case and also issue a direction to respondents No. 2 to 4 to take action on his application against respondents No5 and 6.
During the hearing, Raja Rizwan Abbasi advocate, counsel for the petitioner contended that despite the request that had been made by the petitioner, no action to date has been taken. He further contended that the bare reading of the application indicates that a cognisable offence is made out.
After hearing the arguments, the IHC bench issued notices to the respondents and deferred the hearing till November 28.
Besides the former military officials, the court also issued notices to journalists Javed Chaudhary and Shahid Maitla, PEMRA, and others in this matter.
The petition alleged that the journalists wrote two articles based on the interviews of the retired generals for viewership which had a “negative impact” on the society. He further alleged that under the guise of freedom of speech, a “criminal act” was committed and a request was filed for the registration of a case but no action had been taken yet.
The petitioner claimed that former generals, Bajwa and Faiz, tainted the national events by portraying them in a false and fabricated manner. He added that in order to gain ratings, the news articles presented a negative image of the state institutions under the garb of journalism.
He further said that the ongoing campaign in the context of these incidents is an attempt to create distrust between the people and the state institutions.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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