IHC declares ICA against Shehryar Afridi's release inadmissible

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) maintained objections on an intra-court appeal (ICA) seeking to dismiss the verdict against the arrest of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader (PTI) Shehryar Afridi under the MPO, ARY News reported.

As per details, the written verdict was issued by the two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri.

The court asked whether the accused after his release had convened any political procession or harmed law and order situation.

The Advocate General of Islamabad read out the verdict of the single bench and said that it had given complete relief to the petitioners.

Read more: Shehryar Afridi’s release challenged IHC

Justice Jahangiri observed that the court had not terminated the MPO instead it had just added some conditions to apply it.

The court questioned that how the appeal against the interim order was maintainable. The chief justice remarked that a precedent could be set if the court take up the appeal against an interim order.

Justice Aamer Farooq said that the district magistrate could approach the court for the arrest of the accused if they violated the law. The (single member bench) verdict did not stop the arrest of the petitioners in other cases, he said, adding that the purpose of such orders was to stop the repeated arrests of an accused under the MPO.

Furthermore, the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Islamabad will be indicted in the contempt court case on August 24.

Read more: IHC orders release of PTI’s Shehryar Afridi, Shandana Gulzar

Last week, a single bench of Justice Babar Sattar of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) suspended PTI leader Shehryar Afridi’s arrest warrants under maintenance of public order (MPO) and ordered his immediate release.

Afridi was first arrested on May 16 from his Islamabad residence under Section 3 of the MPO Ordinance, 1960. He was rearrested on May 30 under the same section soon after his release from prison.

On August 3, Afridi was granted bail by the Lahore High Court’s Rawalpindi bench but was later picked up by the police soon after his release from Adiala jail.