Charges against Bajwa, Faiz: Case doesn’t figure in IHC supplementary cause list

ISLAMABAD: The news that the national media ran on Saturday about the Islamabad High Court (IHC) fixing November 28 for hearing a plea against former army chief Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa, former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lt Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed and two journalists for allegedly violating the Official Secrets Act was based on a misunderstanding.

In this regard, this Jang reporter checked the cause list of the IHC and found that the case was scheduled for hearing on November 28, but on checking the proposed records later, it was found that the case was cancelled after issuing a supplementary cause list.

In this regard, a reliable source of the IHC also confirmed that the proposed hearing in this case was cancelled due to non-compliance of notices to date.

On October 3, 2023, Rawalpindi resident Syed Mohammad Atif Ali had filed a constitutional petition with the IHC seeking legal action against Bajwa, Hameed and two journalists for allegedly violating the Official Secrets Act.

According to the petitioner, an interview of Bajwa was conducted in an irresponsible manner, while journalists did not demonstrate responsibility in presenting the interview in the media.According to the petitioner, the disclosures made in the interview are tantamount to the violation of the Official Secrets Act as well as inciting sedition and chaos in the country.

The petitioner requested the court to direct the Federal Investigation Agency DG to file an FIR against the former army chief, the former ISI chief and the two journalists, and the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority to ban the said journalists.

It should be noted that Bajwa had allegedly discussed the no-confidence motion against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan, civil-military relations and other issues in the interviews given to the two journalists.

The petitioner has also attached relevant material with his application, claiming that the journalists who wrote the articles allegedly distorted the facts to gain attention.He claimed that these articles raised some questions on the conduct of the military authorities which need to be investigated. He also claimed that the respondents had committed cognisable offences, so legal action should be taken against them.