March 14, 2024
By Bilal Baseer
ISLAMABAD
A special court of FIA adjourned the hearing of journalist Asad Ali Toor’s post-arrest bail application in the case pertaining to a malicious social media campaign against state institutions as the investigation officer did not present the record.
The absence of FIA’s special prosecutor during Thursday’s hearing prompts court directive for his presence at the March 18 proceedings, leading to the postponement of the bail hearing until then.
The post-arrest bail application hearing was conducted by Cyber Crime Court Special Judge Humayun Dilawar.
While Toor’s lawyers, Hadi Ali and Imaan Mazari, began presenting arguments in favour of bail, stating that Toor is a journalist and the purpose of the case is to silence him, they also argued that even after bail is granted, the days spent in jail cannot be compensated.
Toor’s counsel argued for his client’s clean record and his responsibility as the primary caregiver for his mother.
The FIA informed the court of the unavailability of their investigating officer, who is hospitalised at PIMS, leading to the inability to present records on Thursday.
During the previous hearing, Special Judge Humayun Dilawar, who presides over two courts, mentioned that he would be unavailable the next day. He also mentioned having 20 bail hearings scheduled for Monday and Tuesday and intends to conduct bail hearings on Thursday, March 14.
During the hearing on Thursday, Judge Humayun Dilawar directed the FIA to ensure the presentation of the record on Monday, March 18, stating that if the special prosecutor does not appear, he will make a decision then.
Commenting on the matter, Imaan Mazari, the counsel for Asad Ali Toor in the case, told Voicepk that the judge claims to have no time to hear a case involving the liberty of a citizen. She believes that during today’s hearing, the judge could have directed the assistant director legal cyber crime wing of the FIA to produce and pursue the record. However, she lamented, it appears that the judge is taking instructions from somewhere else.
Senior journalist Hamid Mir condemned Toor’s arrest, drawing parallels to past actions by the FIA during previous government.
“Remember that the FIA used to carry out similar actions during the PTI’s tenure and one FIA director, Babar Bakht Qureshi, would often arrest journalists and members of the PML-N on false charges. He summoned Ahsan Iqbal, Khawaja Asif, Ata Tarar and Pervez Rashid for inquiry and nowadays, he is running around to save his job. It has been a few years. The fate of those who fabricate cases will be similar to that of Babar Bakht Qureshi,” he tweeted on X.