Court rejects Mandhokhail’s plea for registration of FIR against Firdous Ashiq Awan

A district and sessions court on Saturday dismissed an application filed by Pakistan Peoples Party lawmaker Qadir Khan Mandokhail seeking the registration of an FIR against special assistant to Punjab chief minister for information Firdous Ashiq Awan.

According to Mandokhail, he along with Awan, who is a leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, was invited to a talk show hosted by anchorperson Javed Chaudhry on Express News on June 9.

He added that the PTI leader interrupted him while he was giving his party’s stance on a question asked by the show host on the government policies. He said that she repeatedly did so despite him requesting her to speak in her slot.

The PPP lawmaker said that later Awan started to malign the PPP and levelled serious allegations against his party’s top leadership after which he asked her questions about corruption charges against her.

He said Awan got angry and started hurling profanities at him and then slapped him during the show while extending death threats. He mentioned the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Uzma Bukhari as a witness to this.

On a previous hearing, the police had submitted a report in the court, asking the judge to decide the jurisdiction over the matter since the incident in question occurred in Islamabad but the plaintiff wanted a case registered in Karachi.

After considering the response from the police, the additional district and sessions judge of District West, Sarah Junejo, observed that the plaintiff may approach the relevant court with a similar application.

She added that the alleged offence did not fall within the jurisdiction of the court or of the police; therefore, the application to register a case here was dismissed.