Justice Kayani stated SC has rules that more than one FIR cannot be registered of single incident
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Thursday sought the record of cases registered against journalists across the country by February 14.
The IHC's Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani ordered the authorities to inform the court on the status of the FIRs. He asked, Have multiple cases been filed based on a single tweet or interview? If 250 million people hear the interview, will there be 250 million cases?
Expressing concern, he remarked that filing numerous cases nationwide against someone based on a single interview or tweet was a mockery of the law and misuse of authority. He said that the state should nota engage in activities which lead to comments or tweets causing such consequences. He added that these actions resembled herding cattle, and the public was being treated in a similar manner.
The court was conducting a hearing after clubbing together applications moved by Sami Abraham, Imran Riaz, Moeed Pirzada and Arshad Sharif.
Justice Kayani stated the SC has rules that more than one FIR cannot be registered of a single incident and action will be taken on the first FIR only. He said it was easy to say that India and Israel were funding someone or they were receiving money from someone else. He added such stories were heard a lot.
He said that look at the women and children protesting in the capital for the recovery of their loved ones who had been missing for the past many years.
He said it was the duty of state institutions to take legal action; instead, they were abducting people, and no one was paying heed to it. He said courts were also criticized; however, they must do their work because it was the answer to all these issues.