- Reference not supported by judicial precedent: order.
- Remarks deleted during but wrongly included in judgment: judge.
- Observation mentioned 4 countries designated as “terrorist states”.
An Islamabad court has ordered removing a controversial paragraph mentioning “terrorist states” from the verdict that convicted lawyer Imaan Mazari and her husband Hadi Ali Chattha in controversial tweets case last week.
In an order, Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Afzal Majoka said the controversial para was added “due to a clerical mistake which is not supported by any statutory provision, judicial precedent, executive notification, international instrument or authoritative reference, so the same may be deleted because this sentence is vague and ambiguous”.
The judgment further noted that the stenographer in written reply mentioned that this sentence, along with other sentences were deleted during correction of the judgment, but at the time of final print, it was wrongly included and “that this mistake on his part is bona fide”.
The now-deleted paragraph, which appeared as paragraph 36 on page 18, mentioned that the four countries are currently designated as terrorist states.
During a weekly press briefing a day earlier, Foreign Office Spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said Pakistan “does not subscribe” to the judge’s opinion.
“We have seen the judgment. These are views of the learned judge. Pakistan, of course, does not subscribe to this opinion. This kind of designation of terrorist states does not exist either in the UN parlance or under international law,” he added.
