Imran Farooq murder case: Court limits suspects to legal limit of family meetings

ISLAMABAD: While rejecting the request of face-to-face fortnightly meetings with the suspect’s relatives and counsel of the three suspects facing trial in the Imran Farooq murder case, the Islamabad High Court ordered on Friday that the Adiala jail superintendent limit meetings to what is allowed in the jail manual.

IHC Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui disposed of the petition of the suspects’ family members seeking court permission to meet the under-trial prisoners face-to-face and without any glass wall or screen between them in jail for a reasonable amount of time after every 15 days.

Following the disposal, the court sent a letter to the jail superintendent directing him to arrange meetings as per the jail manual. In his remarks, Justice Siddiqui said that the suspects were standing trial in a high-profile case and their security was more important than meetings with blood relatives.

Petitioners Sadia Bano, wife of Moazzam Ali, Gule Rana Noshad, sister of Khalid Shamim, and Majid Ali, brother of Mohsin Ali through their counsel Mehr Muhammad Bukhsh filed the petition.

They had made FIA director general, Punjab Home secretary, Punjab Prisons IG, and the Adiala jail superintendent and deputy superintendent respondents in the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2016.