Pakistan: Court indicts Islamabad DC over case related to arrests of Imran Khan's party leaders

Islamabad [Pakistan], September 7 : The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday indicted Islamabad's district commissioner in a case related to the arrests of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders under Punjab Maintenance of Public Order (MPO), Pakistan-based The Express Tribune reported. 
Justice Babar Sattar took up the contempt plea related to the arrests of PTI leaders Shehryar Afridi and Shandana Gulzar.
The two PTI leaders were released in August after being detained following the May 9 protests that erupted over the arrest of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan. 
Justice Sattar said that the PTI leaders stayed in prison for months. Chiding the relevant officials, he further said, "You may spend some time in jail as well," according to The Express Tribune report. 
Islamabad DC Irfan Nawaz and SSP Operations Jameel Zafar submitted their explanatory response. Furthermore, ICT Advocate General Ayaz Shoukat appeared before the court as prosecutor.
Justice Sattar while indicting the relevant officers for abuse of powers, questioned whether the accused had heard the allegations and reminded that the charges were read out before them in the open courtroom. Responding to the judge's question, SSP Zafar requested for some time to present his defence. 
The judge also indicted SP Farooq Battar and later appointed Qaiser Imam as the prosecutor in the contempt plea in connection with the case.
Earlier, the Islamabad High Court suspended the detention orders issued by Afridi and Gulzar under Section 3 of the MPO, according to The Express Tribune report.
The court said that the authorities were not able to satisfy the court that there existed an objective basis to detain the PTI leaders. 
The court ordered the authorities to release the leaders and bound both the PTI leaders to not leave the territorial jurisdiction of the Islamabad High Court without seeking permission as the matter is subjudice. The court restricted authorities from arresting them in any other case, The Express Tribune reported. 
The court noted that the high court had annulled the MPO against Afridi in June. However, the district magistrate issued another order on the basis of a ‘source report’ illegally. It further said that after the MPO issued by the Rawalpindi DC expired, the Islamabad DC issued another order.