IHC resumes hearing of Khan’s petition for details of secret FIRs

ISLAMABAD    -    The Islamabad High Court (IHC) will Thursday (today) resume hearing of Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan’s petition seeking court’s direction to IG Islamabad police to provide all information re­garding any and all secret FIRs register against him.

A singe bench of IHC com­prising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq will conduct hearing of the petition moved by Khan through his counsels Faisal Fa­reed and Syed Muhammad Ali Bokhari and cited Secretary Interior, Inspector General (IG) Islamabad police and Director General (FIA) as respondents.

Khan moved the petition ap­prehending that the federal government is planning, a sur­reptitious operation to arrest him during Eid and sought court’s direction to IG Islam­abad to provide all information regarding any and all secret FIRs register against him. On the last hearing, the court had also directed the government not to “harass” the PTI Chair­man during the Eid holidays. Through the instant petition, the petitioner also sought di­rection to the respondents to provide information regarding the pending cases/FIRs against him. After hearing the argu­ments, the IHC bench issued the notices to the respondents and directed them to submit their response till April 27 (today).

Khan stated in the petition that since after the regime change, the petitioner has been a constant target of the respondents on behest of the incumbent PDM government and he has been subjected to illegal and unlawful treatment by the respondents and after the dissolution of the provin­cial assemblies by the interim governments of Punjab and KPK the situation deteriorated drastically and the petitioner has been nominated in crimi­nal cases almost on daily basis.

Khan’s counsel said that an onslaught has been unleashed upon the petitioner and his par­ty affiliates while the registra­tion of false and frivolous FIRs has been made a new normal by the respondents and numer­ous Firs have been registered against the petitioner on total baseless and false accusations. He adopted the stance that the respondents have miserably failed to abide by their legal and constitutional duties and they are impeding the petitioner’s fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution inter alia ac­cess to justice, fair trial, freedom of expression and free speech to appease their new owners. The counsel argued that that the respondents, in violation of the law and constitution with­out providing lawful reasoning are adamant to criminalize the fundamental rights of the peti­tioner while also lacking lawful reasons/justifications to carry this well thought illegal opera­tions against the petitioner, and have no valid basis to initiate such woeful actions against him. 

He also argued that he has valid reasons to believe that while his arrival in Islamabad in order to attend court hear­ings he will be subjected to il­legal and unlawful arrest by the respondents and to achieve their ulterior motives criminal cases/FIRs have been regis­tered in clandestine manner to effect his arrest. Faisal further said that this court while taking serious exception to the above referred situation vide its or­der dated 28-03-2023 passed in his writ instructed the re­spondents to submit the detail of the cases/FIRs registered against the petitioner while the respondents in pursuant to the court order submitted a list of pending cases against the pe­titioner. He continued that the petitioner following the due course of law is currently on bail in all cases. The PTI chief said that it has come to his knowledge through reliable sources that the respondents on behest of the incumbent fed­eral government have planned to attack on his Zaman Park La­hore residence and arrest the petitioner illegally and unlaw­fully during the Eid Holidays. “And to achieve this mala fide, illegal and unlawful purpose the respondents have register several secret FIRs,” said Khan.