ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) handed down sentences to Deputy Commissioner Irfan Nawaz Memon, Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations Jameel Zafar, and Station House Officer (SHO) Naseer Manzoor from Kohsar Police Station for contempt of court.
Their contempt stemmed from the issuance of orders to detain Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders Shehryar Afridi and Shandana Gulzar under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) ordinance. The court sentenced the Islamabad DC to six months in prison, the SSP to four months, and the SHO to two months, in addition to a fine of Rs100,000 each.
However, the court suspended the sentence for a month and granted the DC time to file an appeal. This ruling followed the IHC’s indictment of DC Memon and three police officials, including SSP Zafar, on September 7, 2023, regarding the detention of PTI leaders.
The IHC had previously suspended the detention orders of the PTI leaders on August 16, ordering their immediate release. They had been held in connection with the May 9 riots, which erupted following the arrest of PTI chief Imran Khan earlier that year.
Although DC Memon and SSP Zafar pleaded not guilty and offered unconditional apologies, the IHC rejected their plea for pardon. Consequently, the court directed authorities to include DC Memon’s name on the no-fly list for evading case proceedings and issued a show-cause notice for his absence.
Shehryar Afridi was initially arrested from his Islamabad residence on May 16 under Section 3 of the MPO Ordinance, 1960. Despite a release order, he was rearrested under the same section on May 30. He was later granted bail by the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench on August 3, only to be re-arrested by Rawalpindi police upon release from Adiala jail.
In response to his arrest, Afridi’s lawyer filed a plea in the IHC, seeking his release and the revocation of the MPO order.
