Muttahida’s plaint against Khursheed Shah dismissed

Karachi
The plaint of representatives of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and civil society seeking the registration of a blasphemy case against Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah was dismissed on Wednesday on the grounds that no one had approached the trial court to fight the case.
Laila Parveen, Manzoor Brohi and several others had filed an application against Shah, who is a senior politician of the Pakistan People’s Party, charging that he had committed a blasphemous act when he used the word Mohajir in an insulting manner while talking to media persons at the Bagh-e-Jinnah in October 2014.
Later, the opposition leader took back his words, clarifying that he said “the use of the word Mohajir was an insult” he did not mean to hurt or offend anyone.
He said he himself was a Mohajir since his ancestors had moved to Sindh several centuries ago, but now he considered himself as a native.
He added that MQM chief also used to call the province “his motherland”, so it would be better if the community members identified themselves as Sindhis rather than Mohajirs.
However, at the initial stage when the application was moved, Ahmed Raza Kasuri, Barrister Ahmed Ali Saif and Siddiq Mirza had filed their legal powers. Former federal law minister and PPP leader Farooq H Naik had also filed powers to contest Shah’s case.
Notices were also served on Shah, Sindh’s inspector general of police and the station house officer (SHO) of the Brigade Police Station, Karachi.
The petition was filed under Section 22-A by Manzoor Ali Brohi and 22 others seeking trial Shahls under blasphemy laws, charging that he had used the word “Mohajir” in a contemptuous manner.
The plea was taken that the SHO had failed to register a case. The applicants, however, did not turn up at the court and finally the plea to register a case against Shah was dismissed on Wednesday.
The case had been pending in the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge (East) Waseem Iqbal, who was told that the applicants were unable to contest the matter as their attorneys had failed to appear due to some other engagements in the Supreme Court.
At this, the court had fixed January 14 to hear the matter. However, Farooq H Naik appeared in the court and filed his powers to act as Shah’s pleader to contest the case on November 28. The case was then adjourned till January 14.
Later, a police report examining the nature of the allegations against the opposition leader in cleared him of the charges of blasphemy and said they were of “political nature”.
The judge directed the police to ascertain the facts about the allegations so that a case could be lodged against Shah. However, the police submitted a report saying that the matter was not of a blasphemous nature but of a political nature.
The court had fixed December 4 to conduct the hearing and later it kept adjourning the case as no one showed up to represent the case in legal terms.