LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Thursday acquitted retired Capt Muhammad Safdar, the son-in-law of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, in two cases of 2019 with charges of hate speech and a scuffle with police personnel.

Safdar and his counsel Farhad Ali Shah appeared before the magistrate for final arguments on the acquittal applications.

The counsel argued that police acted with mala fide intention as they initially lodged the FIR under Section 16 of the Maintenance of Public Order and later inserted sections 124 & 506 of the Pakistan Penal Code as well. He said the cases against the applicant were nothing but political victimisation. He said the prosecution failed to produce any evidence against the applicant despite a lapse of almost four years. He asked the court to quash the case and acquit Mr Safdar.

In his order, Magistrate Bilal Warraich noted that the prosecution failed to present its witnesses since the indictment of the accused/applicant in 2021. He observed that any accused person could not be subjected to trial for an indefinite period when the prosecution witnesses were not turning up knowingly.

“As the state is well aware about the trial proceeding and all its witnesses are the state officials but did not bother to appear for long. The accused person/petitioner has been facing the agony of this cumbersome trial since its very inception,” the magistrate added.

He observed that there was no probability of conviction in the cases even if the complete evidence was recorded. He said the trial would result in nothing except the wastage of precious time of the court.

The magistrate acquitted Safdar in the cases.

Islampura police had registered the case of hate speech and also arrested Safdar the night Nawaz Sharif was admitted to the Services Hospital from the custody of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in 2019.

The police alleged that Safdar incited people against the government and state institutions.

The second case was also registered by the same police station on charge of having a scuffle with police at the sessions court on the day of hearing of a case against Safdar’s wife Maryam. Later, Safdar was released on bail.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2023