ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday dismissed the petition of the Deputy Commissioner Irfan Nawaz Memon against his indictment.

On September 7, IHC Justice Babar Sattar indicted Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Irfan Nawaz Memon, SSP Malik Jameel Zafar, SP Farooq Buttar, and Margalla Police Station SHO Nasir Manzoor for contempt in a case pertaining to the arrest of PTI leaders Sheheryar Afridi and Shandana Gulzar. Memon challenged the indictment before a division bench.

A day earlier, an IHC division bench comprising Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri and Justice Arbab Mohammad Tahir noted that since the order against which the contempt proceeding was initiated was passed by Justice Tahir, the bench could not hear the appeal against the order.

DC’s counsel, Raja Rizwan Abbasi, argued that Justice Sattar could not initiate the contempt proceeding for non-compliance with an order passed by another judge.

He argued that the DC never flouted the court’s order. However, the bench did not hear the petition and referred the appeal before the Chief Justice for reconstitution of the bench.

The IHC Chief Justice reconstituted the bench and replaced Justice Tahir with Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan.

The bench observed that the DC could not challenge the indictment, which is an interim order of the single-member bench.

The counsel insisted that it was not the interim order, but for the DC Memon, its impact was not less than that of the final order. The bench was not convinced by the arguments of Abbasi and rejected the appeal accordingly.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2023