ISLAMABAD: The capital police have registered a case over a clash that erupted during a musical night held on New Year’s eve at a private housing society, but later sealed the FIR for reasons that remain unclear, Dawn has learnt.

According to sources in the police, the case has been registered at the Banigala police station on a complaint filed by an official of the management of the housing society.

The case has been registered under sections 148 (rioting, armed with a deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) and 440 (mischief committed after preparation made for causing death or hurt) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The sources said the FIR [first information report] had been sealed on verbal directives of senior officials.

They said the musical night was organised to celebrate the New Year, for which tickets were sold at the rate of Rs5,000 for families and Rs2,000 for individuals. However, tickets were allegedly sold far beyond the venue’s capacity and without adequate arrangements for crowd management.

The situation became tense when a large number of ticket-holders gathered outside the venue and the security guards allegedly stopped them from entering, triggering protests by some young participants.

According to the sources, security personnel baton-charged the protesters and both sides were seen resorting to stone-pelting. In the video clips, which went viral on social media, the protesters can be seen damaging the property.

Meanwhile, legal experts believe that the act of sealing FIRs is a violation of court orders. In June 2019, Judicial Magistrate (West) Rana Mujahid Rahim had directed the capital police not to seal any FIR, declaring the practice illegal and unconstitutional.

The court had ruled that withholding copies of FIRs violated the fundamental rights of both the complainant and the accused, as guaranteed by the Constitution.

The order was issued in response to a petition filed by then Pakistan Peoples Party senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, who had sought directions for the police to provide him a copy of an FIR registered against him at Margalla Police Station.

In its ruling, the court observed that “the police have no authority to seal an FIR” and described the practice as “ill-motivated”, aimed at enabling arbitrary arrests without allowing suspects to exercise their rights under Section 498 of the CrPC.

A retired judge of the Lahore High Court Chaudhry Abdul Aziz, when contacted, said there was no law or rule empowering police to seal the FIR. According to the Police Rules, the copies of the FIR should be given to complainant, magistrate and investigation officer, he added.

Some senior police officers, on condition of anonymity, told Dawn that Section 157(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), which empowers a station house officer (SHO) to suspend an investigation on suspicion and conduct a preliminary inquiry, was being misused for sealing FIRs.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (Operations) Jawad Tariq and Senior Superintendent of Police (Operations) Ali Raza Qazi were unavailable for comment despite repeated attempts.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2026