ISLAMABAD: The son of a man arrested in a case regarding a leaked video of a district and sessions judge has gone missing, the counsel for the suspect, Mian Tariq, told a local court on Friday.

Civil judge Shaista Kundi resumed hearing the case, which is based on an FIR registered by the Federal Investigation Agency’s Cyber Crime Reporting Centre on July 16 on the complaint of District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Arshad Malik.

In the FIR, Mr Malik said that the suspect “trapped me through intoxication/sedation for secretly making a compromising video and manipulated it into an immoral video to blackmail me” between 2000 and 2003, while Mr Malik was serving as a district and sessions judge in Multan.

He said the suspect then sold the video to PML-N leader Mian Raza.

In an affidavit submitted before the Islamabad High Court (IHC), the judge said that out of fear for the release of the “Multani video”, he was compelled to meet former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Jati Umra on April 6 and his son Hussain Nawaz in Saudi Arabia on June 1. He said Nasir Butt also pressured him to assist in preparing the grounds for appeal in the Al-Azizia and Flagship references.

After perusing the affidavit, the IHC administration in a letter addressed to the Ministry of Law and Justice asked for the judge’s immediate removal from the accountability court and his subsequent repatriation to his parent department, the Lahore High Court, where he would be subject to disciplinary proceedings.

But instead of repatriating him to the LHC the ministry has kept him in the ministry’s pool, where his status is ‘awaiting posting’.

Following the registration of the FIR on July 16, the FIA arrested Mr Tariq and produced him before Judge Kundi, who initially granted a two-day physical remand and after it expired, extended his remand for three more days.

Mr Tariq’s counsel told the court that his son went missing soon after PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz held a press conference in which she alleged the judge was forced to convict Sharif because of the video.

The FIA also submitted a medical report of the suspect to the court, according to which he was not subjected to torture. The judge told the agency not to torture the suspect and to produce him in court again on July 22.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2019