LAHORE, May 16: The state informed the Lahore High Court on Friday that the body of an Anjuman-i-Mazareen Punjab tenant who was killed in firing at the Okara military farms earlier this week had been ordered to be exhumed after registration of an FIR.

After this disclosure, Justice Tassaduq Husain Jilani disposed of a petition filed by an AMP tenant for the registration of an FIR on murder and indiscriminate firing charges against the Okara SSP, three SHOs of different police stations and the officials posted at the Okara Rangers headquarters.

The court observed that since an FIR had already been lodged, the registration of a case on the same charges could not be ordered.

Petitioner Khadim Husain argued in court that his uncle Muhammad Ameer lost his life as result of an indiscriminate fire allegedly by the Rangers on May 11.

He said an application for the registration of a case against the respondents had been filed with the Saddar police station SHO, but to no avail. He requested court to issue orders for the registration of an FIR against the respondents.

Additional Advocate-General Muhammad Bilal Khan informed the court that the Okara sessions judge had ordered exhumation of Muhammad Ameer on May 14, 2003, following the registration of an FIR. A medical board, headed by the Okara DHQ Hospital medical superintendent, had also been constituted to conduct the postmortem, he added.

The AAG said the petition filed for the registration of case did not have any locus standi because an FIR had already been lodged with the Saddar police station. If the petitioner had any grievance, he could get his version recorded with the investigation officer concerned, he said, assuring that probe would be conducted strictly on merit.

The court observed that although under section 154 CrPc the police was bound to register a case upon furnishing of an application by a complainant, in this case an FIR had already been lodged and there was no question of the registration of another case on the same charges.

“In these circumstances and owing to the AAG’s assurance that the petitioner’s version shall be recorded by the investigation officer, there was no case of the registration of a second FIR and the petition is disposed of accordingly” the court ruled.

petition disposed of: A full bench of the Lahore High Court on Friday disposed of as infructuous a petition for declaring the general election of 1993 void and enforcing Khilafat in the country. The petition had been filed on Oct 15, 1993.

The bench, headed by Justice M. Javed Buttar, observed that since the both the legal and constitutional consequences of the 1993 general election had occurred, the court did not have the jurisdiction to question the legality of those elections retrospectively. Moreover, the bench ruled, no orders for the enforcement of Khilafat could be issued by it under Article 199 of the 1973 constitution.

The petitioner, Mohammad Amin, had nominated the former caretaker government of Moeen Qureshi and the then chief election commissioner as respondents in the petition. He argued that only the Holy Quran and Sunnat were the legitimate sources of law in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and no other source — like the parliamentary system — could be adopted for legislation in the country.

“It was the utmost duty of respondents to do away with the two-party system and replace it with the value-system envisaged in Khilafat-i-Rashida,” the petitioner submitted while alleging that as beneficiaries of the IMF policies, the respondents had tried to implement an anti-Islamic set up in the country through the general election.

According to him, handing over reigns to a government dominated by a two-party system would amount to betrayal since Islam did not allow such a system to be made basis of governance. Therefore, the general election of 1993 be declared void and Khilafat be imposed in the country, the petitioner pleaded.

The last prayer of the petitioner was to restrain the functioning of the parliament elected in 1993 till the disposal of the petition.