ISLAMABAD: Television anchorperson Dr Shahid Masood on Wednesday offered to tender an apology before the Supreme Court for his claims about the rapist and murderer of minor girl Zainab in Kasur, but Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar refused to accept that, saying it is too late.

Justice Nisar reminded the News One anchorperson that during his programme he had offered to be hanged if his information would prove wrong. The court would, however, proceed in the case in accordance with the law, the CJ remarked.

In his programme ‘Live with Dr Shahid Masood’, the anchorperson had claimed that the convict, Imran Ali, was an active member of a child pornography ring being run by certain influential people.

He also claimed that the convict maintained over 37 bank accounts, majority of which were in foreign currencies with transactions in dollar, euro and pound sterling.

The court issued a notice to News One channel and sought a reply from its management for airing the misleading programme related to the Kasur rape-murder case.

FIA given five days to lodge FIR against Hussain Haqqani

The chief justice had taken a suo motu notice of the TV programme.

The Supreme Court later constituted a committee consisting of Director General of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Bashir Memon, Joint Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Islamabad, Anwar Ali and Assistant Inspector General (Operation Division) of Islamabad Police Asmatullah Junejo to dig out the truth and determine the veracity of allegations levelled by Dr Masood.

The committee was tasked with recording the statement of the anchorperson and considering any material he desired to produce in support of his claims during the inquiry. It had to collect any other relevant material available from other quarters to furnish its report to the court within a month.

The committee in its report submitted to the apex court last week concluded that every single claim made by Dr Masood in his programme was without any basis.

During Wednesday’s hearing, the anchorperson’s counsel said he did not examine the committee’s report as he could not get hold of it.

In his programme, Dr Shahid Masood had requested the chief justice, the prime minister and the army chief to take notice of these facts, adding that the rapist/murderer was neither a psychic, a deranged or insane nor a simpleton.

The committee regretted that Dr Masood did not give any evidence that Imran Ali was a member of an international mafia or that he had a close affiliation with any politician or a political party, or had 37 plus bank accounts with some foreign currency accounts.

Likewise, no evidence was provided by the anchorperson to suggest that Imran Ali had a transaction of 1.6 million euros, rather he was a poor person, the committee said in its report.

Memogate scandal

Additional Attorney General Mohammad Waqar Rana requested the Supreme Court to grant some time for registration of a case against former ambassador to the United States Hussain Haqqani.

He explained to the bench headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar that the FIA needed reasonable time because it had to consult the relevant quarters before registering a first information report (FIR) against Hussain Haqqani in the Memogate case.

FIA Director General Bashir Memon sought five days for registration of the FIR.

The court accepted his request, but asked him to explain what steps had been taken for Hussain Haqqani’s repatriation and adjourned the hearing for a fortnight.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2018