February 04, 2007	Sunday	Muharram 15, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 3: Civil Judge Islamabad Irfan Ahmed Sheikh on Saturday rejected bail request of a former official of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Khalid Khawaja.

However, the court fixed February 12 to hear contempt of the court application against the jail authorities for keeping the accused in a lower class in the jail in violation of court orders.

Khalid Khawaja was picked up by the authorities on early morning of January 26, 2007 when he went to offer his Fajar (early morning) prayers. He was charged with inciting people to violence against the government and booked the accused under Section 295 A of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) for allegedly insulting religious beliefs of others and under 188 PPC for showing disobedience to government orders. The maximum punishment for the crime is ten years imprisonment.

Khalid Khawaja was vigorously pursuing the case of missing people at different forums and was seen in different anti- government demonstrations held in Islamabad from time to time.

The local administration believes that he is the man behind troubles for them in resolving the issue of demolition of “unauthorised” mosques in Islamabad as he was also acting as coordinator between the government and Ulema.

On Saturday, Advocate Hashmat Habib, the legal counsel of the accused, told the court hearing the bail application that his client had been booked wrongly under section 188 since November 27, 2006 orders of imposing section 144 had already been expired a day earlier before his arrest.

Besides, the allegation of distributing hate material outside the Lal Masjid Aabpara after Friday prayers was also “fabricated” since the accused was picked up by the administration early morning the same day.

Prosecutor Karamat Niazi, however, opposed the bail application of the accused and argued that the act of Khalid Khawaja during the month of Moharram could have led to any untoward incident.

A representative of the Central Prison Adiyala Rawalpindi also submitted a report admitting that the accused was being kept in seclusion earlier because of the sensitivities involving the nature of allegations, but now he has been shifted to category B.