'Good comedy': Islamabad HC pans FIR, declares PTI lawmakers custody void

Islamabad : The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday struck down, as null and void, the eight-day remand of several Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers, with Chief Justice Aamer Farooq terming the FIRs in the incident a "good comedy" and even breaking down in laughter, along with the entire court, at one of the charges.

A bench of Chief Justice Farooq and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz announced the verdict after hearing both parties' arguments, Geo News reported.

Several PTI leaders were arrested on September 9 after the party's protests in Islamabad after several cases were filed against them including a reported attack on police at Chungi No 26, where PTI workers and security personnel clashed after the former deviated from routes leading to Sangjani, venue of the party’s public gathering.

An anti-terrorism court on September 10 sent PTI leaders Sher Afzal Marwat, Zain Qureshi, Amir Dogar, Naseem Shah, Ahmed Chattha, Sheikh Waqas Akram and Shoaib Shaheen, to eight days custody in connection with the police attack case.

As the case came before the high court, Chief Justice Farooq said that whoever wrote the first information report (FIR) should be given credit for writing a good comedy.

Noting that the orders for the PTI leaders' physical remand were similar, he termed the arrest of multiple opposition lawmakers in one swoop an "unprecedented phenomenon".

"Let the state reply to this as to what had happened that remand for eight days was given for each of them," he said.

Upon Islamabad’s prosecutor general reading the FIR, the Chief Justice quipped its writer was a fascinating person.

"He blamed (senior lawyer) Shoaib Shaheen of possessing a pistol. Do I not know Shoaib Shaheen? He blamed Gohar Khan (another senior advocate) of drawing a pistol from his pocket. Do you and I not know Gohar," he said, asking "what conclusion should be drawn from the comedy that you just read".

As the prosecutor general said a baton was recovered from PTI Chairman Gohar Khan, CJ Farooq and the entire courtroom burst out laughing.

The Chief Justice said that it has been four days since the arrest of the PTI leaders and the investigators had done everything they wanted to do, so why the remand was given for eight days on the basis of "ridiculous allegations" in the case?

“Even if the allegations are accepted as true, it should have come through a procedure,” he said, adding that "a movie could be made over the concocted story as it arouses fascination".

He said a short order would be released for now to provide the legislators relief.

As he noted that an application had come against arrests from the Parliament and would be set for hearing the next week, the Chief Justice came out strongly over the arrests.

"What are you doing, you will not let the dignity of any institution remain intact? Parliament is the mother of all institutions," he said.

As the prosecutor general said anti-state speeches were made in the rally, the Chief Justice said that if this was to be accepted, then a murder suspect could be killed in an encounter. "Where is the fair trial then? No matter how serious a crime someone has committed, he has the right to a fair trial," he remarked.

Justice Rafat asked if an inquiry was held about what training was imparted to the police officials who lodged the case.