FIR for allegedly waging war against Pakistan: Four penal sections removed for being redundant

ISLAMABAD: Four provisions that were unnecessarily added have been removed from the First Information Reports (FIR) registered by the Lahore police against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and more than 40 other Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders.

A close reading of the sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) that have now been withdrawn from the FIRs shows that the accused had not in reality committed any offence within the definition of these clauses.

One of these sections (123-A) pertains to “condemnation of the creation of the State and advocacy of abolition of its sovereignty”. No accused had done any such thing. Another provision (124) is related to “assaulting the president, governor, etc., with the intention to compel or restrain the exercise of any lawful power”. As is obvious, none of the accused had expressed any intention to do so as the president of Pakistan and governors had not ever figured in their verbal attacks.

Section 153 relates to “wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause a riot, if rioting be committed; if not committed”. Lastly, Section 121-A was also redundant as it states that “whoever within or without Pakistan conspires to commit any of the offences punishable by Section 121, or to deprive Pakistan of the sovereignty of her territories or of any part thereof, or conspires to overawe, by means of criminal force or the show of criminal force, the federal/provincial government shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine. To constitute a conspiracy, it is not necessary that any act or illegal omission shall take place in pursuance thereof.”

While all the accused except Nawaz Sharif have been declared innocent in the police investigation, the former prime minister faces seven PPC sections, some carrying the death penalty. The pressure has been left for him to bear alone.

Nawaz is still charged with Section 121, which reads “whoever wages/ attempts/abets to wage war against Pakistan shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life and shall also be liable to fine.”

Nawaz Sharif will also face Section 120, which deals with “concealing a design to commit an offence punishable with imprisonment”. Besides, he will be arraigned under Section 120-B, which says whoever is a party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence punishable with death, imprisonment for life or rigorous imprisonment for two years or upwards shall be punished in the same manner as if he had abetted such an offence. The application of this section has left room to get others entangled by the police in the case as well.

Section 124-A says that “whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the federal/provincial government shall be punished with life imprisonment.” The disaffection includes disloyalty and feeling of enmity. However, “comments expressing disapprobation of government measures to obtain their alteration by lawful means, without exciting or attempting to excite hatred, contempt or disaffection, and disapprobation of the administrative or other action without exciting or attempting to excite hatred, contempt or disaffection do not constitute an offence.”

Nawaz Sharif also faces Section 153-A, that relates to promoting enmity between different groups, and Section 505 that pertains to statements conducive to public mischief.

Meanwhile, another charge against Nawaz Sharif pertains to Section 10 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act. It states: “Whoever commits or threatens to commit any of the offences under sections 6, 7, 8 or 9, where the commission or threat is with the intent to coerce, intimidate, create a sense of fear, panic or insecurity in the government or the public or a section of the public or community or sector create a sense of fear or insecurity in society or advance inter-faith, sectarian or ethnic hatred; or advance the objectives of organizations or individuals or groups proscribed under the law, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 14 years or with a fine that may extend to Rs50 million or with both.”