Anchorperson Orya Maqbool Jan was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Lahore on Thursday for posting about the Mubarak Sani case on social media, his lawyer confirmed.
Advocate Mian Ali Ashfaq said Jan was arrested by the FIA’s cybercrime wing and detained in its Gulberg office, adding that he will be produced before the judicial magistrate today.
“The FIA has no authority in this case, we will present strong arguments”, advocate Ashfaq said. “We are not being told details of the first information report (FIR).”
The Supreme Court today (Thursday) is hearing the Punjab government’s plea against the court’s July 24 verdict in the Mubarak Sani case.
The plea requested the SC to revisit its Feb 6 order, which declared that the right to profess religion and religious freedom, as ensured by the Constitution, is subject to law, morality, and public order.
Filed through the prosecutor general of Punjab on Saturday, the application was instantaneously fixed for hearing before a three-judge bench consisting of Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan.
According to the application, some leading clerics and members of parliament have requested the federal government to approach the apex court and highlight some portions of the judgement that merit correction.
The three-page application mentions that paragraph 49 needs omission and correction since the July 24 judgement had held that the verdict of the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) in the 1985 case of Mujib-ur-Rehman versus the government of Pakistan, and the Supreme Court’s 1993 verdict in Zaheer-ud-Din versus the State case were binding precedents and that the apex court had not deviated from these binding precedents in its Feb 6 judgement.
The application explains that some observations and findings contained in some other paragraphs of the judgement appeared to be an accidental error being contrary to the precedents as mentioned by the top court.
On Monday, protesters attempted to breach SC security after the Aalmi Majlis Tahaffuz-i-Nabuwat arranged a protest demanding the SC withdraw its verdict in the Mubarak Sani case.
Police resorted to baton charging and teargas shelling to prevent protesters from reaching Supreme Court. Earlier in the day, protesters had reached Express Chowk in the afternoon and set up a stage on a vehicle with a sound system installed on it to make speeches, police said.
A day later, capital police registered a case against over 6,000 protesters for entering the Red Zone.
The case was registered under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) and different sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) at the Secretariat police station in response to a complaint lodged by a police official.
Seven persons were nominated in the FIR with their names while 5,000 to 6,000 were unidentified.
