Islamabad (Staff Report/Agencies): The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday stopped Sindh and Balochistan police from taking action against Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed in the cases registered against him in Lasbela and Karachi.
IHC judge Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri heard a petition filed by the former interior minister against the registration of a case in Sindh.
At the outset of today’s hearing, Sheikh Rashid’s lawyer said that the court had stopped further action on the summons issued by the Abpara Police Station. He added that police registered a case on the same complaint and arrested his client.
The court inquired how the same cases were lodged in the Sindh capital when the statement was given in Islamabad. The court lamented the registration of multiple cases in different cities for the same incident.
The court then issued notices to the Attorney General, Advocate General and bar councils suspending the cases registered against the defiant politician.
Shiekh Rashid on Saturday filed a petition in the IHC to bar the police from shifting him to Karachi from Islamabad and to nullify the cases registered against him in Sindh's capital and and Murree.
In the petition, it was stated that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan had accused former president and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chair Asif Ali Zardari of hatching a plot to murder, which Rashid only referred to. It added that the plaintiff in the cases against him was not the victim.
The former minister was arrested on a police complaint filed by Raja Inayatur Rehman, the vice president of PPP Rawalpindi Division, wherein he said that the AML chief, in an interview with ARY’s Waseem Badami on Jan 27, alleged that Zardari recruited terrorists to plan Imran’s murder. His remarks can be heard from the 38-second mark.