The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday indicted capital Deputy Commissioner (DC) Irfan Nawaz Memon and three others for contempt in a case pertaining to the prolonged detention of PTI leaders Shehryar Afridi and Shandana Gulzar under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) ordinance. Justice Babar Sattar presided over the hearing during which the court also indicted Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) operations Jamil Zafar, Superintendent (SP) Farooq Buttar and Station House Officer (SHO) Nasir Manzoor. The development comes a day after the IHC stripped Islamabad’s district magistrate of his powers to detain suspects under the MPO while hearing the same petitions. The PTI leaders had been held by the police in connection with the May 9 violence, with Afridi first arrested on May 16 and Gulzar taken into custody on August 9.

On August 16, the IHC had allowed Afridi and Gulzar to be released and decided to indict the DC and SSP for contempt of court after deeming their responses to the court as “unsatisfactory”. A day prior to that, the IHC had also issued show-cause notices to the city police chief, chief commissioner and other police officials for “criminal contempt of court for abuse of authority to obstruct dispensation of justice and cause diversion to the course of justice”. Today, as proceedings to indict DC Memon began, the official furnished an unconditional apology to the IHC and urged the court to not indict him. The DC and the three other officers denied the charge after they were indicted, with SSP Zafar seeking time to defend himself.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)