Islamabad (Web Desk): The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday issued notice to Federal Investigation Agency FIA, former army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa and former DG ISI Genneral (retd) Faiz Hameed for breaching legal restrictions and stating different events in 'wrong and fabricated' way during media interviews.
The case came up for hearing before IHC led by Chief Justice (CJ) IHC Aamir Farooq
Besides the former military officials, IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq also issued notices to journalists Javed Chaudhary, Shahid Maitla and Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) on citizen Atif Ali's petitions.
The petition alleged that the journalists wrote two articles based on the interviews of the retired generals for viewership which had a “negative impact” on the society.
The petitioner further alleged that under the guise of freedom of speech, a “criminal act” was committed and a request was filed for the registration of a case but no action had been taken yet.The counsel for the petitioner requested the court to order FIA to register case against former army chief Gen (Retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa, Gen (Retd) Faiz Hameed, journalists Javed Chaudhry and Shahid Maitla and initiate proceedings against them.
In his plea, the petitioner maintained that General (retd) Bajwa and Gen (Retd) Faiz Hameed crossed the existing legal restrictions in showing different events in wrong and fabricated way after retirement. Therefore, they committed heinous crime. Criminal act was committed due to Qamar Javed Bajwa-Faiz Hameed nexus. FIA should register case and take action.
The petitioner further said that journalists Javed Chaudhry and Shahid Maitla wrote two articles only for the sake of viewership which left negative impact on the society.
The ongoing campaign in the perspective of these incidents is a bid to create mistrust among state institutions.
The court issued notice to former Army Chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa, former DG ISI Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed, journalists Javed Chaudhry, journalist Shahid Maitla, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) and Press Association of Pakistan.