Court Removes Terrorism Section From FIR Against Cleric Who Threatened Justice Isa

Court Removes Terrorism Section From FIR Against Cleric Who Threatened Justice Isa
An Anti-Terrorism Court on Tuesday removed the sections of Anti-Terrorism Act from the First Information Report (FIR) registered against Islamabad based cleric Iftikhar Uddin Mirza who had hurled threats at Justice Qazi Faez Isa and other judges of the Supreme Court.

ATC judge Sharukh Arjumand ruled that the case of Iftikhar Uddin does not fall under the ambit of ATA and referred the case to the district administration.

Iftikhar Uddin Mirza was charged with the section 6 of ATA, Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016 (PECA) and section 500 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) after a video showing him hurling threats at judges of the apex court went viral on social media. Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed took suo motu notice of the video.

In the affidavit Mirza presented to the Supreme Court during the hearing of suo motu case, the counsel of Mirza stated, “In a private meeting during conversation [He] unintentionally uttered some words against judiciary, honourable judges. [He] has lots of regrets, and feels sorry for those words; he seeks unconditional apology and surrenders himself at mercy of the honourable Supreme Court.”

After the removal of ATA, Mirza will be tried under PECA and section 500 of PPC. The violation PPC could result in a two year prison along with fine.