Daily Times

Issuing the detailed verdict on Sheikh Rashid Ahmed’s petition to dismiss multiple cases filed against him across the country over his “indecent” comments about Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) declared that only one first information report (FIR) could be registered per incident, and only with the relevant police station.

Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, in a 41-page full verdict issued on Saturday, underscored that it was a well-settled principle of law that a person could not be prosecuted multiple times for the same offence.

On June 25, the IHC dismissed the case filed against the Awami Muslim League (AML) chief in February last year for using offensive words against the PPP chief. The FIR was registered by Karachi’s Mochko police station in Keamari on a complaint of a local PPP leader. The high court expressed regret over the fact that political parties, while in power, often lodge baseless cases against their political opponents, filing multiple cases for the same charge in different parts of the country, according to the verdict. It added that this practice of harassing and torturing political opponents was a blatant violation of established laws of the land. The detailed verdict further said that apart from the relevant police station, no other FIR could be registered for a single incident.

“It is the constitutional courts’ responsibility to protect citizens’ rights. In Sheikh Rashid’s case, the incident occurred at PolyClinic Hospital in Islamabad , hence the court exercised its jurisdiction over it,” the verdict read. The court dismissed the case filed at Karachi’s police station. Judicial assistants and police informed a news channel that it was inappropriate to register FIRs for the Islamabad incident in other provinces. On this basis, cases in Peshawar, Lahore, and Lasbela were also dismissed. Sheikh Rashid was accused of using “unethical and extremely obscene” language against the former foreign minister in the FIR lodged at the Karachi police station, despite these words being uttered in Islamabad.