While announcing reserved verdict in a matter relating to contempt proceedings against officials including Irfan Nawaz Memon Deputy Commissioner and Senior Superintendent Police of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Jameel Zafar on Friday Islamabad High Court awarded them jail sentence for months.
However, the single-member bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) comprising Justice Babar Sattar suspended the jail sentence of the Deputy Commissioner (DC) ICT, saying he is being given opportunity to file an appeal against the court verdict. “The DC will be arrested if his sentence was not suspended by filing an appeal in three days,” the Judge observed.
Justice Babar Sattar announced reserved verdict and sentenced DC Irfan Nawaz Memon, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations Jameel Zafar and Station House Officer (SHO) Naseer Manzoor of Kohsar Police Station. The IHC handed down the sentence to the officers for issuing orders for detention of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders Shehryar Afridi and Shandana Gulzar under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) ordinance even after the court has issued restraining order in the matter. In September last year, the IHC had restrained the DC from issuing Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) for an indefinite period as Justice Babar Sattar had ruled that the Islamabad DC cannot use the powers of Section 3 of MPO for an indefinite period.
According to media, the Islamabad DC has been sentenced to six months in jail, SSP four months in prison and SHO of Kohsar Police Station two months whereas the court imposed a fine of Rs100,000 on the three officials each. It is worth mention that on February 20, the IHC had issued arrest warrants for Islamabad deputy commissioner in the contempt case initiated over prolonged detention of PTI leaders Shehryar Afridi and Shandana Gulzar under the MPO ordinance. The high court had ordered IGPs of all the four provinces and Islamabad to arrest the DC wherever they find him and produced before it in the case.
Around six months ago, DC Irfan Nawaz Memon and three others had been indicted in the contempt case. Justice Babar Sattar had indicted SSP operations Jamil Zafar, Superintendent (SP) Farooq Buttar and SHO Nasir Manzoor while presiding over the hearing of the case. The IHC judge indicted the officials after rejecting their unconditional apology in the case, saying all four will face contempt proceedings.
Earlier, the high court had ordered immediate relate of PTI leaders Shehryar Afridi and Shandana Gulzar after suspending a detention order. He had also ordered that the DC Irfan Nawaz Memon and police officers would be indicted for contempt of court over abuse of authority. Afridi and Gulzar were detained by the Islamabad Police under the MPO Ordinance for their alleged involvement in the May 9 violence, which was triggered following the arrest of the PTI Chairman Imran Khan in a corruption case earlier this year. Afridi has been in police custody since May 16 as he was arrested by police for multiple times after local courts ordered his release.
Meanwhile, Shandana Gulzar was allegedly arrested by Islamabad police on August 9. Her mother had filed a plea in the IHC against her detention. During the August 16 hearing, Justice Sattar expressed displeasure over repeated arrests of Afridi under 3MPO order and declared it null and void. He said the SSP operations submitted unsatisfactory response, and ordered that contempt of court action will be taken against him and DC Islamabad.
