Mr. Abdul Waheed Dogar reportedly found a property of mine and wrote to PTI’s Mirza Shahzad Akbar. Dogar didn’t provide his contact details but Mirza Shahzad Akbar says met with him without disclosing when and where; perchance and meeting of the minds? My personal life was pried open and put out for public display, and a malicious propaganda campaign launched.
Mr. President, you never questioned how your reference became public knowledge, you never questioned why neither I nor my children were ever asked about our properties, you never questioned why our properties should be presumed to be my husband’s. It took ever a year to have reference thrown out. As a teacher I would tell my pupils that they rise in stature when they admit their mistake and say, I am sorry.
19th June 2020 saw your reference consigned to the dustbin, but they did not relent; they now adopted a direct approach. Within a few days, a clarion call was given to assassinate my husband by a Rawalpindi cleric, Mirza Iftikhar-ud-din. Dogar’s complaint captured the immediate attention of the highest in the land, but not this blatant public advocacy of terrorism.
PTA and PEMRA block websites, censor media, and tweeters are kidnapped in broad daylight when their tweets are considered to be unpalatable; recording of the capital safe city project to disappear. However, since I could not drag the IG of police out of his bed in the middle of the night, I myself went to report Mirza’s crime to the police on 24 June 2020.
In graphic details, Mirza painted a gory picture: how to kill my husband, how to display his body, and that I not be permitted to retrieve it from burial till I had paid for the price of the bullets. The video sickened me. Could anything be more repulsive than advocating murder in a place of worship? Could anything be more repugnant to Islam?
Never before had been in a police station, but did so on 24th June 2020, because the police, the intelligence agencies, and the entire state apparatus remained oblivious. With my application, I enclosed a USB with the video broadcast showing Mirza advocating terrorism his photograph, address, and phone number.
The Secretariat police station SHO was prevented by the Minister of the interior from registering FIR against Mirza, arresting him, and searching his premises. The Minister of Interior found himself in the company of his predecessor, who harangued on media against the Judge of the Quetta Commission Report.
When my ordeal was reported, the Chief Justice took notice, and only then FIR was registered, six days after I had reported the crime to the police, rendering the “f”- First-in FIR meaningless. Mirza came to the Supreme Court, and his lawyer said he was prevented from coming to the courtroom, was it apprehended that he will disclose on whose behest he had acted.
However, Mirza was provided security and protocol, tea, and biscuits. Mirza managed to obtain bail and roams free. The government vigilantly seeks bail cancellations in minor cases but doesn’t want to curtail Mirza’s freedom, he is free to spew hatred and spread terrorism. Then, I received a notice from the Anti-Terrorism Court. Which itself questioned the applicability of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
I had to engage a lawyer who told me that the court had already taken cognizance of the crime and that it could not now say that it didn’t have jurisdiction. He filed written submissions which looked extremely persuasive. Mirza’s lawyer did not challenge the court’s jurisdiction, did not file an application to seeking to have terrorism charges dropped against him, did not submit a written argument, and, I am told, did not even argue.
However, the Anti-Terrorism Judge absolved Mirza of the terrorism charges. Mirza had admitted that the video broadcast showed him and the voice was his, but the judge says, the. “Prosecution alleges speech was made”. The Judge also says that to advocate terrorism and threaten to kill a Supreme Court Judge, put out of his dead body on public display, etc.
“Cannot be termed ‘serious’”. I then wonder, what is serious? In Quetta over 70 persons, mostly lawyers were slaughtered, the crime remained unsolved till a judge of the supreme court was commissioned. On 12th May 2007 over 50 Constitution-loving citizens were butchered on the streets of Karachi.
During the Faizabad Dharna, an extremist group blocked the route from Rawalpindi to Islamabad and viciously set upon the police. On another occasion, where I believe you too were present Mr. President, public property was wantonly destroyed and policemen beaten by a rampaging mob these acts were noted by the same Judge Is a Judge who puts aside his personal safety and shows resolve against terrorism a threat?
Recommendation to prevent terrorist acts were made in the Quetta Commission Report, but these have not been implemented. Mr. President, it is a matter of immense shame that a country in which children, women, the elderly, lawyers, doctors, teachers, and other innocent civilians that have been butchered is on FATF’s grey list.
The recommendations made in the Quetta Commission Report have not implemented yet the directions by other countries accepted. Is it not our own interest to do more than what others ask us to do to protect our own? Can you honestly say that the children killed in Peshawar would not be alive if the report’s recommendations had been followed?
Do maimed survivors suffer everlasting trauma offer photo-opportunities?
My statement was recorded by competent junior officers of FIA. They informed me that Mirza had 14 rupees and 5 foreign-currency accounts and that they had contacted the state bank to trace their sources and FBR to ascertain Mirza’s income and tax status.
They also informed me that Mirza had changed his identity from the one shown in his old identity card. This information and Mirza’s phone contacts they submitted in writing to the Supreme Court in the contempt case, but none was started in the investigation report filed by FIA in the Antiterrorism Court.
In my statement I had mentioned my suspicions and that the nexus between Mirza and other Mirza, Mirza Shahzad Akbar, between him and Dogar, and the perpetrators of the violence unleashed on the journalist Ahmed Noorani, against whom Dogar planted a false story, be explored and to contact the head of ISI, but the investigation apparently was interfered with and thwarted.
Chief Justice Mr. Asif Saeed Khan Khosa showed your Reference to my husband before placing it before the Supreme Judicial Council. My husband told Justice Khosa that the properties were not his and he had no concern with them. “How then is the Reference maintainable” observed Justice Khosa. But then something changed.
Justice Khosa decided to convene the JTC behind my husband’s back and repeatedly sent for the Attorney-General, Mr. Anwar Mnasoor Khan, who after the reference was filed wrote on 1st June 2019 to PTI’s Mirza Shahzad Akbar to provide him my “Tax Returns” otherwise it “may result into an adverse order” the Attorney-General and the worker of a political party joined hands. Justice Khosa obliged by asking for the “money-trail” and “source of funds” for the purchase of the properties.
Mr. Justice Azmat Saeed, with his unbounded deduction, also heard another reference against my husband just six working days before his retirement, confident that it would be concluded before he retired, and concluded it did, he appended his signature to Justice Khosa’s rebuke and chastisement of my husband, without my husband’s peers hearing him even once.
Earlier, FBR’s Mr. Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed was selected by Mirza Shahzad Akbar as a member of his NGO, the Assets Recovery Unit, and in turn, they selected Mr. Zulfiqar Ahmad to examine my record, which he says he did, behind my back and without hearing me.
When the Supreme Court sent the matter to FBR, one from scores of commissioners, the very same Zulfiqar Ahmad who didn’t have territorial or legal jurisdiction and who had already decided against me was chosen. Foreign currency accounts are protected by law, and FBR is forbidden to access them or ask about them still I voluntarily provided information about the mine.
The law also forbids FBR to probe into matters which are over 5-years old however, I also provided the information which I had. And, the constitution states that earnings from agriculture are exempt from income tax, but I also provided information about my agricultural lands.
The hand-picked Zulfiqar Ahmed bombarded me with 8 notices, I didn’t have him kidnapped, instead replied to each of them. However, like before, he didn’t provide me a hearing. Even he had to acknowledge that I had foreign currency accounts with the Standard Chartered Bank, Clifton Branch, Karachi from where I had sent, to quote him, “737,503 pounds and $ 17,966” the cumulative purchase price of the properties was 751,000 pounds; therefore, the money-trail matter introduced by the meticulous Justice Khosa stood settled.
I also showed my earning (salary, rental and agricultural) and saving and thus Justice Khosa’s nitpicked source of funds too was taken care of. But not every government servant can withstand pressure so he created an artificial liability, which I have challenged in appeal. With my appeal, I filed an application seeking the tax records of those who had illegally accessed my tax records: Messrs Imran Khan, Farogh Naseem, Anwar Mansoor Khan, Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed, Mirza Shahzad Akbar, and Abdul Hameed Dogar and of their respective spouses; expecting that in the interest of accountability, transparency and good governance they would, without hesitation, provide them; I am still waiting.
Mr. President, my husband, a Supreme Court Judge, wrote to you three times but you didn’t deem it courteous to send a single reply. However, you did wax eloquent about your Reference in arranged television interviews at the Presidency. Hence the need to make this letter public.
My lawyers tell me that the order absolving Mirza of terrorism charges, without recording any evidence, can be successfully challenged; but I have decided not to. It is the prime duty of the government to keep people safe, but I note complicity at the highest level. My husband and I are not accompanied by armed escorts. Our safety is with Almighty Allah, however, those who have done all this, those who have acted through proxies and in stealth should know that if we are harmed their names will be sent to FATF, Interpol, and the United Nations. Powers is also making them forget that they will be accountable in the hereafter.
Yours in truth and sadness
Mrs. Sarina Isa
