PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Friday disposed of a petition of former PTI lawmaker and independent candidate for the National Assembly Shandana Gulzar Khan after learning from the provincial government that no criminal case was registered against her in the province.

Additional advocate general Danyal Asad Chamkani told a bench consisting of Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Wiqar Ahmad that neither the police nor other law-enforcement agencies, including anti-corruption establishment, had registered any FIR against Ms Shandana in the province.

Ms Shandana, who became an MNA on a seat reserved for women during the last PTI government, had sought the court’s directives for the government and its law-enforcement agencies to provide information about the cases registered against her.

She said if there was any case registered against her, she should be granted protective bail to approach the relevant court for relief.

When the court asked the AAG whether the petitioner would be free to carry out her election campaign, the AAG replied that as there was no case against her, she faced no “adverse action.”

During the Jan 9 hearing, the court ordered the police, National Accountability Bureau and other law-enforcement agencies not to arrest Ms Shandana in any case until further orders.

It also sought details of the cases registered against her from the government.

Senior lawyer and spokesperson for the PTI Mohammad Muazzam Butt represented the petitioner and said she was a PTI candidate for a National Assembly seat in Peshawar, NA-30.

He contended that her client was a law-abiding citizen and had never been involved in any illegal activity.

Mr Butt said that as the petitioner had been contesting the Feb 8 election for a general seat of the National Assembly, she was required to approach voters for support.

He contended that looking at the law-enforcement agencies’ practice of registering cases against PTI leaders and arresting them, his client feared her detention in a case she wasn’t informed about.

The lawyer said that the petitioner was entitled to several fundamental rights mentioned in the Constitution’s articles 4, 9, 10, 14 and 19-A, so she should be informed about the FIRs, if any, registered against her.

DETAILS OF CASES SOUGHT: Another high court bench consisting of Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Sahibzada Asadullah directed the government to produce details of cases registered against several PTI workers of Kurram tribal district, and stopped the police from arresting them in any case until further orders.

AAG Danyal Chamkani sought the time for sharing those details until Jan 30 and adjourned the hearing until then.

A petition was jointly filed by party activists from PK-95 Kurram constituency, including Rakhmeen Khan, Khwaja Naheed and Alaf Khan, seeking the court’s orders for the government to provide them with details of cases registered against them.

Advocate Fazal Maula appeared for the petitioners and contended that while law-enforcement agencies had been frequently arresting PTI leaders, the police had begun booking workers of the former ruling party in criminal cases.

He argued that his clients feared that they would be booked in “concocted” cases before being arrested to stop them from campaigning for their party’s election nominees.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2024