Islamabad March 7 (NS): A Supreme Court bench headed by Mian Saqib Nisar on Wednesday asked anchorperson Shahid Masood to seek public apology over his unfounded claims he had leveled against the convicted rapist in seven-year-old Zainab.
Earlier, an inquiry committee formed to investigate Masood’s allegations against convicted rapist Imran Ali concluded that the allegations were baseless, unfounded and unsubstantiated.
When the apex court bench resumed hearing in the suo moto case, Masood told the bench that the Federal Investigation Agency did not have the equipment to investigate his allegations and the supportive material and evidence got vanished with the passage of time.
The chief justice told him that the inquiry report says that what you said was baseless and unfounded and “you seek public apology over your distorted claims. The bench told the anchorperson that he could challenge the inquiry report within one week or seek public apology over his unfounded claims. The anchor insisted that investigative agencies should hang him if his allegations were unfounded.
Last week, the inquiry committee headed by Federal Investigation Director-General Bashir Memon submitted its report to the Supreme Court and according to the report findings, Imran Ali neither videotaped the gory scene of rape and murder nor he uploaded it on the internet.
Seven-year-old Zainab was raped and murdered in Kasur and the incident sent shockwaves through the nation’s spine and people and political and religious leaders demanded the public hanging of Imran Ali, who was convicted to death on for counts by an Anti-terrorism Court.
According to the inquiry report, the convict was not a member of the international pornography group, as claimed by Massod, and neither did he hold 37 accounts of different banks.
Achor Masood had hurled 18 allegations against Imran Ali claiming that he was an agent of the international pornography gang and he had 37 bank accounts and he was backed by two members of the assembly.
Soon after Shahad Masood made the startling, but unfounded claims, at a TV programme on TV One channel, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar took notice and formed the inquiry committee headed by Bashir Memon. The committee carried out the inquiry for 30 days and during the investigation, it also summoned Shahid Masood.
The TV anchor, who often makes unsubstantiated claims in his TV programme and he had to face a scathing criticism over his latest claim on the social and mainstream media, still insists that “he will never spare his detractors and expose them”.
The chief justice during the hearing of the suo moto case had warned Shahid Masood that he should be ready for dire consequences if he could not substantiate and corroborate his claims about Imran Ali
