The case of former accountability court judge Arshad Malik’s ‘immoral video’ took another turn on Monday when a cybercrimes court in Islamabad ordered its transfer to an anti-terrorism court (ATC) for further proceedings. As the hearing of the case resumed, an investigation officer of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told the court that the suspects have been identified as Hamza Arif Butt and Faisal Shaheen. To this, the judge asked the officer about the claims made in the previous application. Responding to the court, the officer said that same suspects had been identified in the prior application.
The suspects’ counsel pleaded the court to reject transfer of the case to the ATC as terrorism clauses were inapplicable to the case. To this, the judge remarked that clauses of terrorism had already been added in the case and therefore it needed to be transferred to the ATC.
Earlier on September 30, the court had expressed displeasure at the FIA for not submitting a final charge sheet in the said case. Subsequently, the court had directed the agency to file the charge sheet by October 7. On September 23, cybercrimes court judge Tahir Mehmood Khan had directed the FIA to submit the charge sheet after the agency, in an interim charge sheet, informed the court that the inquiry into the case had been transferred from the cybercrime wing to the counter-terrorism wing. The transfer of the inquiry happened on the complaint of former judge Arshad Malik as the cybercrime wing released from its custody three suspects who had allegedly blackmailed the judge.
