Zubair Qureshi
The Islamabad High Court on Thursday directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to submit the entire record of the inquiry into former judge of Accountability Court Arshad Malik’s video scandal.
A two-member bench headed by IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah and also comprising Justice Aamer Farooq was hearing the plea of the accused in the case, Mian Tariq Mehmood who had sought bail on medical grounds.
The IHC chief justice asked the investigation officer of the case as to what constitutes a crime from the FIA’s perspective and whether or not a judge could adopt the stance that he was drugged before being filmed.
The head of the FIA investigation team told the court that the video, in which the judge could be seen in a compromising position, was filmed between 2001 and 2003 and a forensic examination had proved that it was genuine.
“How did the judge realize after years that he was drugged and filmed?” Justice Minallah inquired.
He added that the judge had himself admitted that the video was genuine and had confessed his misconduct.
The court raised questions over the performance of the FIA team and sought the investigation record of the case. “Did you record the statement of the judge? Why did the judge go to somebody’s house where the video was filmed?” Justice Minallah asked. The hearing was later adjourned to until May 21.
Tariq Mehmood, who was named in the affidavit submitted by Judge Malik to the IHC, was arrested in July last year.
The law ministry had barred Arshad Malik from serving as an accountability court judge after the IHC directed his removal over a controversial video unveiled by the PML-N in which he was heard saying that he was blackmailed into convicting former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
Malik in an affidavit submitted to the IHC stated that he was blackmailed by the PML-N leadership using a clip of him — described by the judge as “Multan video” — to rule in favour of Nawaz.
He claimed that he was offered Rs500 million by the son of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif to resign on the pretext that he could “no longer deal with the guilt of having convicted the former premier under duress and without evidence”.
