Azam Swati’s remand: Justice Aurangzeb blasts ATC judge’s conduct

ISLAMABAD: On a petition against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Azam Swati’s physical remand, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has directed Islamabad Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Judge Abul Hasnat Mohammad Zulqarnain to submit comments on the affidavit submitted by Advocate Ali Bukhari on behalf of Swati’s grandson.

The IHC’s Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb said that the conduct of the presiding officer was seen in the cipher trial, and no other court in the world had committed such injustice as the presiding officer had, adding that the Ministry of Law was supporting him and encouraging him to do so.

Justice Aurangzeb and Justice Arbab Mohammad Tahir heard the petition against the successive physical remand of Swati in different cases registered on October 5.

Advocate Bukhari appeared in court on behalf of Swati and said Swati’s grandson Advocate Sohail Khan has filed an affidavit about the details of the proceedings that took place before the ATC after court hours. He said that during those hours the petitioner’s physical remand was granted in FIRs No. 905/2024 on October 5, No. 706/2024 on October 5 and No. 1208/2024 on October 5.

Justice Aurangzeb took exception to the conduct of the ATC judge, and asked if CCTV cameras were installed at the presiding officer’s court, saying that the court has had cases before where it had found the presiding officer to have committed misconduct by first adjourning the matter and later rejecting the bail application.

The IHC said that two judges of the high court had also written to the member inspection team to repatriate the presiding officer, but he remains posted there to carry out his political activities.

The court issued a written order after the hearing, saying that the petitioner’s case is that all the FIRs were registered on October 4 and October 5, and once the petitioner was arrested on October 5, his successive remand one after the other was not permissible under the law.

The court said that by doing so the petitioner would be deemed to have been arrested in all the FIRs in accordance with the judgements laid down by the court on September 19, 2023, in the Mohammad Ali Wazir case and August 26, 2024

The judges observed that they are sanguine that a copy of the affidavit will be placed before the presiding officer of the Islamabad special court-I (ATC) for his comments, which should be placed before the court on October 31.

The court also wrote in the order that when the case was called, the federal prosecutor general did not appear in court and had to be summoned by the court official.The PG appeared in court and said he had not received the court notice. The court directed the additional registrar to conduct a judicial inquiry as to how the notice issued two days earlier could not be served to the office of the PG.