ISLAMABAD: The anti-terrorism court (ATC) of Islamabad on Monday ruled that the case related to a confessional video of a sacked judge did not fall under the ambit of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) and transferred it back to the cybercrime court.

ATC Judge Raja Jawad Abbas Hassan ann­o­u­nced the verdict on the application filed by the accused being tried in the judge video case. He reserved the order on transfer of the case on July 23 to a court under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) 2016.

In July last year, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders released at a press conference a video in which judge Malik confessed to having convicted Mr Sharif under duress because of his alleged immoral video.

Initially, the cybercrime circle of the FIA investigated the case and arrested Mian Tariq, Nasir Janjua, Khurram Yousaf and Mahar Ghulam Jilani. However, the FIA absolved Janjua, Yousaf and Jilani after a preliminary investigation.

On the complaint of sacked judge Malik, the FIA transferred the investigation to the counter-terrorism wing (CTW). The CTW arrested suspects, including a nephew of Nasir Butt — who is a UK-based activist of the PML-N — for secretly recording the confessional video of judge Malik.

Judge Malik accused the cybercrime circle of discharging the three from the case after a ‘friendly interrogation’.

The CTW filed an application with the cybercrime court for transferring the case to the ATC after the investigation was sent to it which was probing the matter under the Anti-Terrorism Act and Pakistan Penal Code. The case was, however, transferred to the ATC. The accused challenged the jurisdiction of the ATC, saying the Supreme Court had set guidelines for the cases to be referred to the ATC.

Defence counsel Riasat Ali Azad and Malik Siddiq Awan argued that the FIR was registered under the Prevention of Elect­ronic Crimes Act against the accused persons.

Mr Azad pointed out that the apex court had this year laid down the law that terrorism was not something related to personal vendetta, ill will and mala fide against someone but it was an act of violence against the larger segment of society.

He pointed out that an incident occurred in 2002 could not be termed an act of terrorism after over one-and-a-half decades. He said the FIR against the immoral video of the ex-judge was registered 16 years after the incident.

Mr Azad argued that if this was an act of terrorism, it would have created terror among the masses in 2002.

Judge Malik met Nawaz Sharif in April 2019, whom he convicted in the Flagship Investment reference in December 2018. The sacked judge then met Hussain Nawaz, who he had declared fugitive in Al-Azizia and Flagship references.

He argued that the case was closely being monitored by a judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Ijazul Ahsan. The sacked judge, he added, had to report to Justice Ahsan on the ‘terrorism’ charges, but he did not.

Earlier this month, the Lahore High Court (LHC) sacked judge Malik from service. The administrative committee of the LHC approved the district and sessions judge’s “removal from service”. The seven-member administrative committee, headed by LHC Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan, took the decision in the light of recommendations, made in a report of inquiry, conducted by a high court judge into the conduct of the judicial officer following the video-scandal.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2020