ISLAMABAD – The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday awarded jail sentence to federal capital’s Deputy Commissioner Irfan Nawaz Memon, Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations Jameel Zafar and Station House Officer (SHO) Naseer Manzoor in the contempt of court case, local media reported.
The high court handed down the sentence to the officers for issuing orders for detention of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders Shehryar Afridi and Shandana Gulzar under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) ordinance.
The Islamabad DC has been sentenced to six months in jail, SSP four months in prison and SHO of Kohsar Police Station two months. IHC has also imposed a fine of Rs100,000 on the three officials each.
Meanwhile, the court suspended the jail sentence for a month, giving time to the deputy commission to challenge the decision.
On Feb 20, the IHC had issued arrest warrants for Islamabad deputy commissioner in the contempt case initiated over prolonged detention of PTI leaders Shehryar Afridi and Shandana Gulzar under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) ordinance.
The high court had ordered IGPs of all the four provinces and Islamabad to arrest the deputy commissioner wherever they find him and produced before it in the case.
Around six months ago, Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Islamabad Irfan Nawaz Memon and three others had been indicted in the contempt case.
Justice Babar Sattar had indicted Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) operations Jamil Zafar, Superintendent (SP) Farooq Buttar and Station House Officer (SHO) Nasir Manzoor while presiding over the hearing of the case.
The IHC judge indicted the officials after rejecting their unconditional apology in the case, saying all four will face contempt proceedings.
Earlier, the high court had ordered immediate relate of PTI leaders Shehryar Afridi and Shandana Gulzar after suspending a detention order.
He had also ordered that city Deputy Commissioner (DC) Irfan Nawaz Memon and police officers would be indicted for contempt of court over abuse of authority.
Afridi and Gulzar were detained by the Islamabad Police under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance for their alleged involvement in the May 9 violence, which was triggered following the arrest of PTI Chairman Imran Khan in a corruption case earlier this year.
Afridi has been in police custody since May 16 as he was arrested by police for multiple times after local courts ordered his release.
Meanwhile, Shandana Gulzar was allegedly arrested by Islamabad police on August 9. Her mother had filed a plea in the IHC against her detention.
During the August 16 hearing, Justice Sattar expressed displeasure over repeated arrests of Afridi under 3MPO order and declared it null and void.
He said the SSP operations submitted unsatisfactory response, and ordered that contempt of court action will be taken against him and DC Islamabad.
