HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court on Friday stayed the proceedings of a blasphemy case and restrained the Khanote police in Jamshoro from making any arrest.

The division bench comprising Justices Salahuddin Panhwar and Fahim Ahmed Siddiqui passed the order on a constitutional petition filed by one of the suspects.

The court issued notices to the home secretary, an assistant sub-inspector, a senior superintendent of police and DIG who were cited as respondents by the petitioner, and the additional advocate general of Sindh, directing them to appear in court on Oct 30.

Represented by Advocate Sajjad Chandio, the petitioner said some verses from the poetry of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai were recited at a friend’s wedding after which some people, who introduced themselves as religious scholars and leaders, launched a defamatory and abusive campaign against them on the social media.

On Sept 27, she said, the respondent police official registered an FIR under Section 295-A of the PPC at the Khanote police station. The petitioner’s counsel said that Section 295-A PPC related to offences against state and all offences against state were tried under Section 196 of the CrPC.

He argued that offences under Section 295-A PPC read with 196 CrPC indicated that it was not an offence against an individual but against the state.

The court, therefore, could only take cognizance of the offence if the complaint was made or the case was registered by an order or under an authority from the federal or provincial government, he said.

In the present case, he said, the complainant was neither a federal nor a provincial government authority. Thus, he concluded, the FIR was without substance and of no legal consequence as laid down by superior courts and requested the court to quash the FIR against his client and stay its proceeding.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2017