The Islamabad police on Thursday told the court that criminal proceedings will not be initiated against Mansoor Ijaz upon his arrival in Pakistan as the memo-issue is being probed by the Judicial Commission. Islamabad District Court Additional Sessions Judge Syed Wajahat Hassan had sought a report from the Secretariat police station SHO by January 10, following the preliminary hearing of a petition filed by PPP activist Khalid Javed who moved the lower court to register an FIR against Mansoor Ijaz, the central character of the memogate scandal.
The Secretariat police submitted a reply in the court stating that in the light of the Judicial Commission’s directions an FIR could not be registered against Ijaz. The court adjourned the hearing till January 17. “Since the matter is being probed by the Judicial Commission, we can not register the FIR against Mansoor Ijaz,” said Secretariat SHO Hakim Khan while talking to Pakistan Today. The petition stated that Ijaz, a secret agent of an anti-Pakistan lobby, was trying to defame the country’s patriotic forces and destabilise the democratic government by publishing fake and baseless memo related documents.
Citing the documents containing statements, articles, analysis published in different international media by Mansoor Ijaz, the petitioner pleaded that Ijaz be charged with offences under sections 153-A, 177, 197, 199, 200, 468, 471 and 505 of the Pakistani Penal Code and should be arrested immediately after coming to Pakistan.
Javed said the local police refused to register the FIR against Ijaz after which the petitioner placed his application before the judicial commission secretary Raja Jawad Abbas Hassan and the Islamabad district and sessions’ judges, who forwarded his plea to the session judge.
Islamabad High Court Bar President Chaudhry Ashraf Gujjar and Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench General Secretary Malik Saeed said in a press conference said the lawyers’ community was all set to launch another long march against the government for its confrontation with the court. “The government has to comply with the Supreme Court’s orders. Otherwise the lawyers’ community will come out on the roads,” Gujjar said.
