–Abdul Shakoor accuses Justice Athar Minallah of receiving apartment in UK as ‘gift’
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has registered a First Information Report (FIR) against an expatriate vlogger for alleging that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Capt (r) Safdar were released on bail after judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) “struck a deal” with the Sharif family.
As per the details, on the plaint of the acting registrar of the IHC, the FIA Cybercrime Wing on Wednesday nominated Abdul Shakoor alias Chacha Shakoor for uploading “false and malicious material” on social media against judges dealing with high profile cases, in an FIR under Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 sections 10(a), 20 and 24 along with PPCs 109, 419, 500 and 501.
“A technical analysis report has been obtained from FIA’s Cybercrime Reporting Centre Incharge Muhammad Salman, which has revealed that three Youtube videos and one Facebook account are affiliated with the accused’s Youtube channel ‘The One Man Army’,” states the FIR.
Moreover, an action was initiated over the findings and a court order from judicial magistrate has been sent to Facebook and Youtube seeking subscribers’ details of the account holder while a similar request has also been made to Godaddy, the hosting company of chachashakoor.com that is also allegedly controlled by the accused.
‘JUDGES ARE PML-N LOYALISTS’:
Two days prior to the suspension of Nawaz, Maryam and Safdar’s sentences in the Avenfield Reference case, Shakoor had claimed that Justice Athar Minallah would be releasing them on September 19 because the IHC judge was a “Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) loyalist”.
He had alleged that Nawaz’s mother Begum Shamim Akhtar had “gifted” Athar Minallah an apartment at Manchester City’s Oxygen Tower and “Nawaz too had done favours to the IHC judge”.
“Athar Minallah was a secretary of former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and was appointed as a judge of the IHC on Nawaz Sharif’s recommendation,” he had said in a video on his Youtube channel while also making derogatory remarks about Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani and Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui.
“Everything is being done in collusion with Chief Justice Saqib Nisar and that is why he [Justice Nisar] said that IHC had the right to choose which case it has to take up for hearing,” Shakoor had said and added that it was after the chief justice’s statement that IHC took up for hearing Nawaz’s appeal for suspension of the sentence.
The vlogger had also alleged that IHC judges “patronised” Nawaz and that was why the Sharif family trio would be released at the earliest.
In a subsequent video on September 18, he had said that Justice Athar Minallah, during the course of proceedings earlier in the day, “unjustly” ordered the National Accountancy Bureau (NAB) to present all evidence in the court.
“When the lawyer explained that it wasn’t possible, Athar Minallah lost his cool and the two ended up exchanging harsh words,” he had said and once again made derogatory remarks about judiciary.
VLOGGER REACTS TO FIR:
Reacting to the registration of a case against him, Shakoor on Thursday addressed the IHC acting registrar and asked why no action had been taken against those who criticised the armed forces of the country.
“Why didn’t you register a case against Maryam Nawaz over her tirade against the armed forces? Why didn’t the FIA take any notice when media cells defaming state institutions were being operated from within the governor houses?”
Shakoor also claimed that Justice Athar Minallah, after his revelations, had now “transferred the ownership of his [alleged] apartment to his sister-in-law’s name” and added that he would soon be getting his hands on the evidence to support all his claims.
“All these judges, lawyers and FIA officials are corrupt. Who will bring them to justice? There are hundreds of thousands of cases pending with the courts but registering fake FIRs is all they want to do.”
FIA’s version will be added as soon as we receive it.