SHC issues notices as Shahbaz Gill asks FIRs of identical nature be quashed

The Sindh High Court on Friday issued notices to the prosecutor general and others on a petition filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Shahbaz Gill against the registration of cases pertaining to charges of abetment of mutiny registered at different police stations in Karachi.

Gill submitted in the petition that police had registered three cases against him at the Brigade, Surjani Town and Rizvia police stations on charges of abetment to mutiny, promoting enmity among different groups and issuing threats.

The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the Supreme Court’s larger bench had held that one FIR could be registered about one incident and all other FIRs in the identical matter would be declared unlawful.

He said the instant FIRs were registered against the petitioner on a private complaint, which was general in nature; besides, the private individual could not be a complainant on behalf of state or any department of the state.

He further argued that the nature of allegations against the petitioner was the same as levelled in the FIR registered in Lahore, and on the basis of the same occurrence other FIRs cannot be lodged. The counsel submitted that FIRs of identical nature had been registered against the petitioner throughout the country, including Sindh, and they were liable to be quashed.

The court was requested to declare that the FIRs registered against the petitioner at three police stations of Karachi be declared unlawful and quashed in light of the SC judgment. A division bench, headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha, after the preliminary hearing of the petition, issued notices to the prosecutor general as well as to the SSPs of South, East and Central to ensure their appearance on the next date of the hearing.