Plea to reinvestigate Lal Masjid cleric dismissed

Abdul Aziz likely to be acquitted based on police report

ISLAMABAD: A judicial magistrate on Friday dismissed an application seeking reinvestigation of a case registered against Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Aziz for issuing death threats.

Civil society activist Jibran Nasir had challenged a police investigation which had declared Aziz innocent in the case registered against the cleric in 2014.



Aziz was booked by the Aabpara police after he allegedly threatened several civil society activists including Nasir, Farzana Bari, Senator Sehar Kamran and others during a protest against the cleric outside the mosque following the Peshawar APS terror attack.

The police, in the challan submitted to Judicial Magistrate Muhammad Naseeruddin, declared as Aziz innocent, saying there was no solid evidence against him. Aziz then filed an application requesting the court to quash the case.

Nasir, however, filed a counter-application on October 22 challenging the police investigation and demanded a fresh inquiry. He said the police conducted a mala fide investigation and misled the court.

“The police, in the past 20 months, did not at any point contact any of the eight complainants to record their statements… The Police have based their report solely on the statements of four people, all of whom are followers and supporters of Abdul Aziz,” says Nasir. He said the police recorded the narrative of only one side and thus demanded reinvestigation.



Tariq Asad, counsel for Aziz, maintained that the police had investigated the issue objectively and declared the cleric innocent on merit. He said none of the eight complainants in the case provided any evidence against his client.

On Friday, the court dismissed Nasir’s plea and adjourned the case till December 10. It is likely that Aziz will be acquitted on the basis of the police report.

Meanwhile, another application filed by Nasir seeking registration of a hate speech case against Aziz is pending before a sessions’ judge and is likely to be taken up on Monday.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd, 2016.