Sarina Isa submits affidavit in threatening video case

SC indicts cleric; orders accused to submit response to court’s show cause notice

ISLAMABAD:

Justice Qazi Faez Isa’s wife, Sarina Isa, has submitted a three-page affidavit to the Supreme Court asking 24 questions about the manner in which the government has dealt with death threats hurled by a cleric, Maulvi Agha Iftikhar Uddin Mirza, against her husband.

Sarina Isa had filed an application at Islamabad’s Secretariat Police Station on June 23 to register a first information report (FIR). She had complained that her husband had received a death threat via a video in which the intimidator –Mirza – can be heard saying: “Isa should be shot publicly.”

“Whoever is caught in embezzlement, whether it be Faez Isa or anyone else, should be executed through a firing squad. Only those who indulge in such activities must be hanged and the entire city should be invited to watch it,” the person in the video said according to Justice Isa’s wife.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed had taken notice of the footage a day after Justice Isa’s wife filed the application and started contempt of court proceedings against the accused, who was taken into custody by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) under cybercrime law.

In the affidavit she said: “The manner in which the crime has been dealt with confirms that a more direct method to remove my husband (Justice Isa) is now planned.”

She asked why the FIR was not immediately registered by the Secretariat Police Station and whether every FIR is registered after taking instruction from interior minister as the police did in her case.

Sarina also asked as why Mirza mentioned name of Justice Isa in his speech. “Is it a coincidence?”

She also asked as to whether Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief was contacted in respect of the threat.

"In my application to the police, I had suspected that the death threat to my husband was in continuation of Abdul Waheed Dogar [the man on whose complaint the government filed a reference against Justice Isa].

“[Special Assistant to PM on Accountability] Mirza Shahzad Akbar had said he had met with Abdul Waheed Dogar. Why then is Mirza Shahzad Akbar not questioned? Why Dogar is not questioned?”

Sarina also stated that she in her application to police had said that whoever Dogar works for "is the real mastermind and the person who wants to now eliminate my husband. Why Abdul Waheed Dogar is not questioned to find his links?”

Sarina also raised serious questions about the FIA inquiry into this matter. She also asked about findings of intelligence agencies in this matter. “Why this man malign the army and display the photograph of the army chief in his video,” she questioned

Apex court indicts Mirza

The apex court on Wednesday also indicted Mirza in the contempt of court case and also sought from the accused a reply of its show cause notice within a week. It also directed the accused's lawyer to state whether his client pleads guilty or not by the next hearing.

The CJ, who was heading the three judge bench, also referred to the affidavit submitted by Sarina Isa and said in the affidavit, Mirza has been linked with Shahzad Akbar and Abdul Waheed Dogar, on whose complaint the federal government filed a reference against Justice Isa.

The court handed over the affidavit to Attorney General for Pakistan Khalid Javed Khan and inquired about the link between Akbar and Dogar. “No one can give a statement against the judiciary on their own,” the CJ remarked. “The attorney general should review the affidavit and respond.”

Earlier Mirza had requested the court that he had no knowledge of uploading and editing of the video and that he sincerely apologized and was ashamed.

The court, however, had rejected his plea for pardon. CJ Ahmed had remarked that there was no scope for pardon in the case. Justice Ijazul Ahsan, a member of the bench, had noted that the accused was sitting on the pulpit of a mosque and using language which no person should use.