Quaid’s mazar desecration: Court quashes case against Capt Safdar, others

KARACHI: A local court on Wednesday quashed a case lodged against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Safdar Awan for allegedly violating the sanctity of the mausoleum of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

The court rejected the final investigation report filed by the investigating officer Inspector Muhammad Yousuf Najrejo seeking disposal of the case in the B-class and seeking an action against the complainant for lodging a false case.

The judge also threw out an application filed by the federal government against the Sindh Police’s move to declare the case as ‘false’ and pleading to the court to order an action against the PML-N leader Awan.

Safdar, who is the husband of PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz, was taken into custody by the police on the morning of October 19 from a hotel where the couple was staying during their visit to Karachi for the opposition Pakistan Democratic Movement’s public gathering held in the city a day earlier.

On Wednesday, the East District’s judicial magistrate Wazeer Hussain Memon pronounced his verdict reserved after hearing arguments from an assistant attorney general, the state prosecutor, investigating officer of the case and lawyers representing Safdar Awan.

He concluded that the recommendation of the police for disposal of the FIR under the B-class was even not reasonable and justified as no any other sufficient evidence is available on record to term the FIR as “maliciously false” and initiating the proceedings against the complainant, as provided under the law. “Therefore, I hereby decline to concur with the recommendation of the police and order to cancel the FIR under the C class in the manner provided under the law,” the judge ruled.

The judge cancelled post-arrest bail granted to Captain Safdar Awan and discharged the surety.