by Umer Burney in Dawn, August 23rd, 2023
An Islamabad court on Tuesday granted a post-arrest bail to human rights lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir while it sent former lawmaker Ali Wazir on a 14-day judicial remand in a case pertaining to rioting and unlawul assembly.
Wazir was arrested on Saturday, while Imaan was picked up from her home in the early hours of Sunday. A pair of first information reports (FIR) were registered against the two at Islamabad’s Tarnol police station and Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) police station.
The arrests were made two days after a public meeting, organised by the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM). Wazir, a PTM member, and Imaan had both addressed the rally, with videos circulating on social media showed speakers criticising the military establishment over enforced disappearances.
A day ago, an Islamabad anti-terrorism court had granted the police three-day physical remand of both in a terrorism case filed against them at the CTD police station.
Today, Wazir was presented in court after the completion of his two-day physical remand. Ataullah Kundi appeared as his lawyer while Zainab Janjua and Qaiser Imam appeared on behalf of Imaan.
Judge Waqas Ahmed Raja presided over the hearing during which both legal teams presented their arguments.
During the hearing, the police sought further physical remand of Wazir, which was rejected and the court sent the former MNA to jail on judicial remand.
Meanwhile, the lawyers of Imaan, who is on judicial remand in this case, urged the court to grant their client post-arrest bail. While the request was accepted for surety bonds worth Rs30,000, Imaan remains in police custody in the terrorism case in which she is on a three-day physical remand.
The hearing
At the outset of the hearing, prosecutor Atifur Rehman informed the court that two-day physical remand of Wazir was complete and that he was not cooperating with the police.
Stating that the police were yet to recover the “police kit and weapons” from the former MNA, he urged the court to grant further physical remand of Wazir.
At this, Wazir’s lawyer opposed further physical remand, stating that “nothing had been recovered even after the two-day physical remand”.
Noting that the case had only three unbailable sections while others were bailable, he argued, “The participants of the rally can be anyone. Ali Wazir has nothing to do with the rally participants.”
“What [statement] do the police want to extract from Ali Wazir?” Kundi asked.
However, the prosecutor argued that they had recovered a “weapon from the co-accused” but Wazir was not cooperating.
At this point during the hearing, Wazir came on the rostrum and recalled that there were “a lot of arrests made when we were going to hold the gathering”.
He said that he had also received a call from the interim government and that interim Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti even tweeted about their negotiations after the gathering concluded.
Subsequently, the court reserved its verdict on Wazir’s case.
When it was Imaan’s legal team’s turn to present their arguments, Imam argued, “No recovery was made during the investigation even though the suspect remained in police custody for 24 hours.”
Asserting that “neither did we threaten nor caused any damage to state property”, the lawyer argued that the sections invoked in the FIR were not valid.
Meanwhile, prosecutor Rehman opposed Imaan’s bail plea and argued that the case had not reached the stage where arguments were presented on the sections invoked.
“The suspect addressed the gathering and incited the public,” he stated.
Subsequently, the court reserved its verdict on Imaan’s bail plea as well.
Later, it announced the verdict wherein it accepted her post-arrest bail plea for surety bonds worth Rs30,000 and rejected the police’s request for Wazir’s physical remand but sent him to jail on a 14-day judicial remand.
The FIR
The case heard today pertained to one of the two FIRs that were filed against Imaan and Wazir on Saturday.
The first FIR was registered on the complaint of Tarnol Station House Officer (SHO) Miam Mohammad Imran under Sections 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 395 (punishment for dacoity), 440 (mischief committed after preparation made for causing death or hurt) and 506ii (criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
The FIR said that the complainant on Friday at 5pm was present with other police officers at Tarnol Phatak Chowk to maintain peace and calm during a rally of the PTM. It said that the rally led by PTM chief Manzoor Pashteen, including Wazir and Imaan, began moving from the spot allocated to it in violation of its no-objection certificate.
The SHO said when the police officers attempted to stop the rally from moving towards Islamabad then the rally’s 700-800 participants armed with sticks confronted the officials. He said that upon being stopped after attempting to move towards Islamabad again, the crowd blocked both lanes of Grand Trunk (GT) Road by placing containers and staged a demonstration while traffic was completely blocked.
SHO Imran said when the PTM leadership and supporters were asked to open GT road for traffic, the rally participants attacked the police while issuing threats of dire consequences, broke mirrors of official vehicles, forcefully shut down shops and a petrol pump and snatched anti-riot kits from the police.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1771564/islamabad-court-sends-ali-wazir-on-judicial-remand-in-rioting-case
