KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday issued notices to the chief secretary of Sindh and other respondents on a petition seeking details of cases registered against detained leader of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Ali Amin Gandapur.
The petitioner also asked the SHC to restrain the authorities concerned from arresting the former federal minister again without prior permission of court and not to lodge any fresh FIR against him.
A single-judge bench headed by Justice Omar Sial put the chief secretary, home department secretary and inspector general of Sindh police on notice with direction to file comments till May 3.
Umer Amin Gandapur, a brother of PTI leader, moved the SHC and contended that as per his information, a number of FIRs had been registered against his brother in Dera Ismail Khan, Islamabad and other cities of the country, including police stations in Sindh.
The counsel for the petitioner argued that the petitioner could exercise his fundamental right to get copies of FIRs registered against his brother, if any, and therefore, approached the police in Sindh, but they were reluctant to provide any kind of information in this regard and it was tantamount to denying right to access to justice and fundamental rights.
He further said that the PTI leader had falsely been implicated in a number of FIRs without rhyme or reason by the present government and the PPP-led provincial government as they were bent on unleashing political persecution on the PTI leader.
Initially, Mr Gandapur was arrested from a court in D.I. Khan, taken to Islamabad and then brought to Lahore and now he has been detained in Central Prison in Sukkur, he added.
The counsel contended that it was a settled principle of law that multiple FIRs under the same offence against a person cannot be lodged and also against the principle of double jeopardy, but all the cases in question were registered against the former minister under the same charges while Section 123-A of the Pakistan Penal Code was the prerogative of the state and could not be invoked by the police or a private persons.
Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2023
