Pakistan: Islamabad Court seeks report from govt on cases lodged against journalists
Jan 12, 2024
Islamabad [Pakistan], January 12 : Islamabad High Court's (IHC) Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani on Thursday sought a report from the government over the cases lodged against the late journalist Arshad Sharif, Sami Abraham, and Moeed Pirzada, Pakistan-based Dawn reported.
Kayani also demanded an explanation for the registration of multiple FIRs against them for a single event. He sought the report while hearing the petitions of these journalists filed in May 2022.
The petitioners, including Sharif, were requesting the court's protection against their harassment by the police and law enforcement agencies, according to the Dawn report.
Initially, Pakistan's former Chief Justice Athar Minallah issued a blank order for the protection of these journalists.
Justice Kayani resumed the hearing on Thursday and was informed that Sharif faced 16 FIRs while Abraham was nominated in 13 cases.
In response to the court's query, the lawyer stated that these journalists were booked in the FIRs for expressing their views in a post shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, Dawn reported.
The judge said multiple FIRs lodged for a single incident are against the law. He also asked for records related to the cases against these journalists and adjourned the hearing till February 14.
Earlier in June last year, Islamabad police booked two anchorpersons -- Sabir Shakir and Moeed Pirzada alongside another individual on charges of sedition and terrorism for their alleged involvement in the violence that erupted in Pakistan on May 9.
In May 2023, news anchor Moeed Pirzada was abducted in Islamabad by unidentified men on May 24. He returned home on May 30.
Meanwhile, Arshad Sharif, a broadcast journalist, was shot dead in Nairobi in October, 2022. In August 2022, Sharif left Pakistan after multiple cases of sedition were lodged against him in different cities. It was reported that he initially lived in the UAE after leaving Pakistan and later travelled to Kenya, where he was murdered, according to a Dawn report.
Initial reports on his killing by the Kenyan media quoted local police as saying that Sharif was shot dead by police in a case of "mistaken identity". However, Kenyan media reports later reconstructed the events surrounding the killing, stating that a person in Sharif's car at the time of his killing was believed to have shot at paramilitary General Service Unit officers.
