Social media has been abuzz with reports that UK’s University of Hull has expelled Pakistani judge Humayun Dilawar, who convicted former prime minister Imran Khan of corrupt practices on Saturday after a controversial and hasty trial.
These reports started circulating on social media after British-Pakistani Twitter user Shayan Ali tweeted that Dilawar was removed from the training programme after protest by him and his team outside the university. PTI supporters took Ali’s tweet as true and started sharing this news on Twitter and other social media platforms.
Senior Pakistani journalist and TV anchor Moeed Pirzada, who is currently living in exile in the United States after fellow journalist Arshad Sharif’s murder earlier this year, retweeted Ali’s tweet, questioning it veracity.
On August 5, Islamabad Additional District and Sessions Judge Humayun Dilawar found Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan involved in “corrupt practices” and sentenced him to three years in prison and Rs100,000 fine. Dilawar, who was accused of conducting the trial hastily due to some external pressure, left for UK soon after the verdict, to participate in a training programme on human rights and rule of law hosted by the University of Hull.
However, now some social media users are quoting sources as saying that the University of Hull has received more than 6,000 emails from across the world against Humayun Dilawar, but he is still on the training programme.
Earlier, the university said it has been running human rights and the rule of law training for Pakistani judges since 2014, for which the participants are selected by their respective high courts in the country.
“The current cohort has been selected by the Islamabad High Court, the Peshawar High Court and the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The University has no role in the selection of judges,” it said.
In a related development, the official body of the PTI in UK announced a protest outside the University of Hull on Tuesday.
PTI supporters protest outside Hull university where the judge who convicted imran khan is attending a training session. Hull Uni has said it will not expel Judge Humayun Dilawar and he will attend the full course. pic.twitter.com/QGCGDNoXqe
— Murtaza Ali Shah (@MurtazaViews) August 8, 2023
As the news of Dilawar’s arrival in London spread like a wild fire, some Pakistanis are now visiting the University of Hull and confronting Dilawar. Earlier, Shayan went to the university along with his team and confronted Dilawar.
On Tuesday, the video of a woman confronting Dilawar over his controversial judgement and then chasing his vehicle at the University of Hull went viral on social media. Some other people, who were not captured in the video, were heard asking the judge, “How much money you have taken for this job.”
یہ لیں و ڈیو جج دلاور جس نے ہمارے ملک کا انصاف بیچ دیا 🚨🚨 pic.twitter.com/mKmBvZKW7I
— Sara Mir (@SaraMirGilgity) August 8, 2023
