ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court came down hard on Monday on an investigating officer for his failure to trace the culprit behind brazen display of defamatory and critical banners against a judge of the apex court.

‘The performance of the officer is far below the mark as the outcome of investigations was not commensurate with the level of ability, experience and expertise the officer seemed to have, Justice Ejaz Afzal said while dictating an order after hearing the case of the banners that had popped up in the Red Zone area and other parts of the capital city during the night of May 22.

Sponsored by an organisation named “Farzand-i-Islam”, the banners had levelled serious allegations against Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja.

Station House Officer of Aabpara Police Station Khalid Awan failed to come up with a satisfactory answer when the court asked what he had done to trace the real culprit.

Failure to trace culprit behind anti-judge banner criticised

The officer simply said that police had arrested a freelance journalist, Mohammad Rashid, who had also worked with an organisation associated with counter-terrorism and investigated his 28 contacts found on his cellphone. One of the contacts was currently at the Pak-Afghan border.

Rashid himself confessed in his statement before a magistrate that he had got the banners prepared, the officer said, but the court was not amused and asked would the investigating officer accept whatever a suspect confessed before him.

The court ordered the officer to furnish on the next date of hearing complete credentials of the freelance journalist in addition to the stories he had contributed to a newspaper or news agency.

In the order the court regretted that the officer had done nothing seriously to trace those who could possibly aid or collaborate in the crime, let alone laying hands on their shoulder.

“This shows lack of concern on part of the officer which cannot be ignored by the court,” the order said.

The court adjourned the hearing till Dec 10.

The same bench adjourned contempt proceedings against chief executive of ARY Salman Iqbal and anchorperson Mubashir Lucman for airing a scandalous and defamatory programme against the judiciary.

The court had to frame contempt charges over the contents of ARY’s talk show ‘Khara Such’ aired on May 29 in which Lucman had levelled a number of slanderous and defamatory allegations against Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja, from his close relationship to Mir Shakeelur Rehman, the owner of Geo TV network, to the sale of a property in Lahore to the Punjab government by the judge’s wife.

The case was adjourned on the request of Lucman and also because the counsel of both the respondents, Irfan Qadir, could not appear in the court.

The bench ordered both the respondents to ensure their appearance on the next hearing on Dec 1.

Published in Dawn, November 25th , 2014