KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Saturday discharged five detained workers of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in a case pertaining to holding a protest demonstration despite a ban on rallies in the city under Section 144 of the criminal procedure code.

Police had rounded up Suleman, Farhan, Wahid, Johan Ali and Ali Naeemuddin on Oct 18 near the Empress Market in Saddar during a protest demonstration for release of party founder Imran Khan.

The activists were booked for violating the ban imposed under Section 144 of the CrPC.

The investigating officer of the case produced the suspects before the court and asserted that they had committed an offence under Section 188 (disobedience to an order lawfully promulgated by a public servant) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

A judicial magistrate (South) noted that as provided in Section 195 of CrPC, a magistrate cannot take cognizance of case lodged under Section 188 of the PPC unless the officer concerned or his superior filed a complaint.

Hence, it said that provision of Section 188 of the PPC could only be invoked when provision of Section 188 was complied with and therefore, the suspects were being discharged under Section 63 of CrPC and directed the IO to file investigation report.

The FIR was registered at the Preedy police station on the complaint of a police officer and several PTI leaders, including its Sindh president Haleem Adil Sheikh, Firdous Shamim Naqvi, Raja Azhar, Arsalan Khalid, Fahim Khan and others as well as around 400 unidentified suspects, were also nominated in the case.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2024