KARACHI: An additional district and sessions judge (South) on Monday dismissed an application seeking registration of a counter FIR against Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who is also a candidate from the NA-246 constituency, with regard to the July 1 violent protests in Lyari.

The ADJ (South), Shazia Asif, pronounced her verdict, which was reserved on July 12, after hearing arguments from both sides.

MQM leader Mehfooz Yar Khan moved an application under Section 22-A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) seeking direction for the Kalri SHO to register an FIR against the PPP chairman and other party leaders over an alleged armed attack on the protesters during his election rally in his constituency, Lyari, on July 1.

He had named Bilawal, Sherry Rehman, Syed Murad Ali Shah, Nabeel Gabol and Javed Nagori in the proposed counter FIR.

The applicant’s counsel, Javed Chhattari, argued that peaceful women residents of the locality were protesting against unavailability of water when Bilawal’s private security guards pelted them with stones during the PPP rally.

He said the police booked 400 unidentified residents, including Rafiq Hingoro, the MQM candidate from PS-107, on the charges of rioting and spreading terror.

A case under sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 268 (public nuisance), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 was registered against them at the Kalri police station.

The counsel produced a video footage of the incident and claimed that Bilawal’s private guards could be seen pelting the unarmed protesters with stones.

He said the applicant had filed an application with the Kalri SHO for the registration of a counter FIR against the PPP leaders and workers but they refused to entertain his plea. Therefore, he added, the SHO be ordered to register the FIR on the charges as mentioned in the application of the MQM candidate and others.

Advocate Liaquat Ali, who represented the PPP leaders, opposed the application arguing that the applicant was not aggrieved in any incident during which he was neither present nor was he a resident of the area.

He further argued that none of the PPP leaders or workers had attacked any of the protesters, who on the contrary had pelted their vehicles with stones, damaging them and also forcing closure of the shops in the area. He added that none of the residents had either approached the police or filed an affidavit in the trial court to claim that he or she was hurt or aggrieved in the incident.

The lawyer contended that the MQM leader had moved the application with mala fide intention to get the PPP leaders booked in a false case with political motivations as one of the protesters, Rafiq Hingoro, booked in the FIR, was an MQM candidate.

He argued that in the light of the apex court’s ruling, more than one FIR of the same incident could not be registered and, therefore, the application be dismissed.

Pronouncing her verdict through a short order, ADJ Shazia Asif dismissed the MQM candidate’s application. A detailed order would be issued later.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2018