ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has said journalists facing cases in different provinces could not be arrested without the court’s permission.
The court also sought details of cases registered against them in all provinces. Chief Justice Athar Minallah observed that calling someone a traitor was strange. “No Pakistani can be a traitor or Mir Jafar. In our history, people were called traitors but the accusers had to feel sorry for it later. It should end now,” he observed.
Hearing pleas of journalists Arshad Sharif, Sami Ibrahim and Moeed Pirzada for protective bail, the CJ asked if an institution was an accuser in the FIRs lodged against the journalists, Arshad Sharif’s lawyer said only citizens had lodged complaints for inciting sedition. He said many FIRs had been lodged for similar charges and requested the court to transfer all cases against him to Islamabad, to which the deputy attorney general said no such law existed in the country. The CJ ordered the IG and the DC Islamabad to ensure that the journalists’ custody was not given to any province without the permission of the court and adjourned the case until May 30.