Contempt plea filed against FIA Punjab director over LHC, HQ orders violation

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LAHORE: A female teacher of the Punjab University (PU) on Friday filed a contempt petition in the Lahore High Court (LHC) against Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Punjab Zone Director Dr Usman Anwar for violating court orders as well as directives of the FIA Headquarters in her case against five accused teachers of the varsity.

Lecturer Khujista Rehan of the PU Law College filed the petition through her counsel Khuram Taseer. In her petition, Khujista Rehan prayed before the court of Justice Mushtaq Ahmed that Dr Usman had become a party in the case and was deliberately filing incomplete challans against the accused teachers and was not adding eight criminal offences against the accused. She also held that Dr Usman was also not following the orders of a magistrate in this regard.

She alleged that the FIA Punjab Zone director was not following the directives of FIA director general, therefore, contempt proceedings may be initiated against him. She further urged the court to call Dr Usman in person and get a reply from him. She prayed the court that she had submitted a copy of challan before the court and requested to order Dr Usman to start a criminal trial of five accused teachers including Dr Sania Zahra Malik, Imran Alam, Imran Javaid, Imran Alam, Muhammad Shafique and Dr Abid Hussain.  The court issued a notice to Dr Usman and sought a reply from him.

Speaking to Pakistan Today, Khujista alleged that Dr Usman was patronising the influential accused, who according to her belonged to ex-PU vice chancellor Dr Mujahid Kamran. “Dr Usman did not add criminal offences in the FIR and is creating hurdles that affected the enquiry,” she alleged. She said she had also moved several complaints against Dr Usman to the FIA DG and in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Khujista alleged that Dr Usman belonged to the “lobby of Dr Mujahid Kamran”, who was still calling the shot in the university affairs and wanted no action against his men working on top slots in the varsity administration. Dr Usman ignored the directives from the FIA director general and did not take any action against the accused.

The FIA had registered a case on the complaint of Khujista Rehan against Assistant Professor Dr Sania Zahra Malik, Assistant Professor Imran Alam, Assistant Professor Muhammad Shafique, Assistant Professor Imran Javed and Dr Abid Hussain for allegedly abusing her in a Whatsapp group on January 31.

FIA Punjab Director Dr Usman rejected the allegations levelled against him by the PU teacher and said that an enquiry was carried out following the complaint. “An FIR was lodged against the accused and a report was submitted accordingly to the court later. It is up to the court now to decide if the bail applications of the accused are to be accepted or if they are to be arrested. As far as the FIA is concerned, the agency has done its job and has no further involvement in the case,” he had said in an earlier chat with Pakistan Today.

He also made it clear that he did not influence the case as the enquiry was conducted by the Islamabad director general office.

On the other hand, teachers of the Punjab University have demanded the FIA’s Cyber Wing to withdraw the case against them and urged the vice chancellor to hold an inquiry into the matter.

Addressing a press conference at the Lahore Press Club on March 15, PU Law College Principal Dr Shazia Qureshi, and other teachers said the FIA Cyber Crime Wing, following Khujista Rehan’s complaint, had registered a case against them without investigating the matter.

PU Law College Principal Dr Shazia Qureshi had said that the FIA had ignored their complaint against Khujista Rehan and had accused FIA Cyber Crime Wing head Mohammad Shoaib of unduly favouring the former.