‘malicious campaign against judiciary’ inquiry postponed till general elections, Supreme Court

The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday relieved the journalists and media persons to appear before Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) till the February 8, general elections for an inquiry over alleged ‘malicious campaign against the judiciary on social media’.

A three-member bench, led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa and comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Musarrat Hilali, presided over the suo-motu case against FIA’s notices to journalists.

The FIA issued notices to almost 50 media personalities and main stream journalist for so called malicious campaign against Supreme Court judges over Supreme Court’s verdict that upheld the Dec 22 decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) depriving PTI of its iconic symbol — ‘bat’.

The FIA issued notices to Asad Ali Toor, ⁠Paras Jahanzeb, ⁠Iqrar Ul Hassan, ⁠Siddique Jan, ⁠Matiullah, ⁠Syed Haider Raza Mehdi, ⁠Shaheen Sehbai, ⁠Cyril Almeida, ⁠⁠Adeel Raja,  ⁠Sabir Shakir, Imran Riaz, Orya Jan Maqbool, ⁠Arif Hameed Bhatti,  ⁠Tariq Mateen, Jibran Nasir and many more.

Read also : FIA summoned leading media persons for alleged campaign against Judiciary

The court called for a report on the attack against journalist Absar Alam and made Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) as a respondent in the case.

The court directed the registrar’s office to promptly assign a number to the petition once filed and elevate it to the three-member judges committee.

The court then adjourned further hearing of the case until the first week of March.