PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Tuesday disposed of a petition seeking details of cases registered against Murad Saeed, an absconding leader of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), by law enforcement agencies, after the relevant information was provided to it by federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments.

A bench consisting of Justice Syed Mohammad Attique Shah and Justice Sahibzada Asadullah was informed by federal interior secretary, through his report submitted to the court, that the office of Islamabad capital city police officer reported that a total of eight cases had been registered against Murad Saeed.

He said that Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had reported that no case had been registered against him.

FIA also filed its separate report through its director law, Tariq Pervez, stating that information regarding registration of inquiries and FIRs against Murad Saeed was obtained from all its field units, which replied in negative.

FIA stated that it was working within four corners of law and no harassment of any kind whatsoever was caused to Murad Saeed.

An additional advocate general of the KP government also informed the bench that there was no case registered against him in the province.

The petition was filed by Murad Saeed’s father Saeedullah, requesting the court to direct the respondents to provide details about any FIR registered against his son as well as about any order of his preventive detentions issued against him under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance.

The bench directed the petitioner that for receiving information about cases registered against his son, also a former federal minister, in other three provinces, he should approach the relevant high courts.

The bench had earlier issued notices and sought details from the respondents including KP chief secretary, its inspector general of police, directors general of National Accountability Bureau and FIA, federal interior ministry and KP anti-corruption establishment’s director.

Advocate Alam Khan Adenzai appeared for the petitioner and contended that his client tried his best to get information about the cases against his son, but the respondents bluntly refused to provide any information to him in that regard.

He stated that Murad Saeed, presently in hiding, tried his level best to approach the competent court of law for getting legal remedies but local police blocked all his ways to approach relevant courts.

He contended that law enforcement agencies were bent upon to willfully violate the Constitution and had been harassing the petitioner’s son and other family members by conducting raids on their residences and hujras.

The report of the federal interior secretary was submitted through a section officer of the ministry. The report said that eight cases were registered against Murad Saeed from August 22, 2022 till March 18, 2023 at different police stations of Islamabad including Aabpara, Kohsar, Golra Sharif, Ramna and CTD.

In the first case registered at Aabpara police station on August 22, 2022, Murad Saeed had been charged along with former prime minister Imran Khan and several other PTI leaders when they had held a rally against arrest of another leader Shahbaz Gill.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2024