ISLAMABAD: Alleged contemnor Iftikharud Din on Thursday denied the charges regarding threatening and maligning the judiciary, while the top court declined his request to stay the contempt of court proceedings. A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, heard the suo moto case against Iftikharud Din Mirza.
The Court on July 15th had indicted the alleged contemnor. However, his counsel, Sarkar Abbas, had sought time to present something in defense, and file a reply in response to the charges. Justice Ijazul Ahsan asked the defence counsel that his counsel was denying charges although he had tendered an unconditional apology.
Sarkar Abbas contended that on the basis of a video clip, his client was being tried in two cases. The chief justice said that when four laws had been violated in the video then every department would come into action and try him under different laws. Justice Ijaz said Cyber Crime and Anti-Terrorist laws had no link with the contempt of court case, adding that Justice Qazi Faez Isa had been threatened in the video, which was a criminal act.
Trial, evidence and sentence of every offence are separate. The chief justice said the trial court would decide the case according to the evidence submitted before it.
The FIA official said that millions of rupees were deposited and withdrawn from Iftikharud Din's bank accounts. He said they were tracing source of funding to Iftikhar. The Counter Terrorism Wing of the Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) has registered a case against Iftikharud Din under 7ATA read with Section 34/500/505/506 of Pakistan Penal Code, 1860, besides Section 20 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, on June 29, 2020.
The FIA report said the accused, Mirza Iftikharud Din and co-accused, Akbar Ali, were arrested on 30th June 2020. After physical remand they were sent to judicial lockup on 07 July 2020 and 10 July 2020 respectively.
The Anti-Terrorism Court-I, Islamabad, on 16 July 2020 granted bail to the co-accused, Akbar Ali, for being juvenile, but rejected the bail application of Iftikharud Din.
About the statement of Abdul Waheed Dogar, the report said, he was a professional journalist and mostly covered Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Finance, law enforcement agencies and the OGDC. Dogar admitted that he met Advisor to Prime Minister Mirza Shehzad Akbar only once after submitting application in Assets Recovery Unit.
Dogar categorically denied any acquaintance with Iftikharud Din, and stated that he came to know about Iftikhar when he viewed his "mischievous" video on a WhatsApp group of a news channel.
Regarding the statement of Shehzad Akbar, FIA report mentioned that Advisor to PM Shehzad Akbar also joined the investigation and got his statement recorded. Shehzad Akbar told FIA that neither he had any acquaintance with Iftikharud Din nor did he have any relation with this matter.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020