Police response in Afridi case irks IHC

Court seeks list of all responsible officers at next hearing

ISLAMABAD:

Terming the response of the Islamabad Police unsatisfactory, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday issued a written order on a contempt of court plea for failing to produce Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shehryar Afridi before a magistrate in violation of the court’s order.

In his order, IHC’s Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir said, the violation of the court order in the contempt of court case has exposed everyone from the Inspector General of Police to the investigating officer.

“The state counsel should provide a list of all the responsible officers from the IGP to the IO at the next hearing,” the order read.

Declaring the police response unsatisfactory, Justice Tahir upheld that the IO wrote letters as a cosmetic measure and that shifting of responsibility from one person to another in a bureaucratic style was an attempt not to avoid implementation of the court’s directives.

“If the violation continues, the court will consider issuing a show cause notice at the next hearing,” the order said.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2023.