Court moved against Maryam, Safdar

Official says PML-N leaders violated sanctity of Mazar-e-Quaid

KARACHI:

The administrator of the Mazar-e-Quaid on Saturday filed a complaint against PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz, her husband Captain (retd) Mohammad Safdar and other party activists for violating the sanctity of the mausoleum.

Ghulam Akbar, the administrator of the mausoleum, approached the court of the judicial magistrate (East) and submitted his statement against the PML-N leaders and workers.

 The petitioner stated that the PML-N leaders had violated the sanctity of the Mazar-e-Quaid by chanting political slogans there during their visit to Karachi for the Pakistan Democratic Movement's rally.

He claimed that the party activists also damaged the grill at the mausoleum.

Assistant Attorney General Muhammad Nadeem Khan and Advocate Muhammad Ahmed appeared on behalf of the complainant.

The administrator also submitted video evidence to the court.

On Wednesday, Judicial Magistrate East Wazeer Hussain Memon had quashed an FIR filed against Safdar for “desecrating” the mausoleum.

The court rejected a report submitted by the investigating officer, seeking action against the complainant – a worker of the ruling PTI Waqas Ahmend Khan – for filing a "fake case”.

The court also dismissed the federal government’s application against the Sindh police's move to declare the case "fake". The PTI led federal government had urged the court to order relevant authorities to take action against Safdar.

The written order read the complainant claimed that the investigating officer failed to bring out the facts. However, according to the investigating officer, he issued three notices to the complainant to record his and other witnesses’ statements but they did not show up.

According to the order, the investigating officer also recorded the statement of Qari Muhammad Shams Uddin who recites Fateha at the mausoleum. The Qari in his statement said Captain (retd) Safdar only chanted “vote ko izzat do” slogan.

Shams told the police that the mausoleum was closed for public on that day and neither he nor the mausoleum security chief saw the complainant or his companion at the mausoleum when the PML-N workers and leaders visited the place.

The CCTV footage also did not prove the presence of the complainant at the mausoleum. There is no record of any damage to mausoleum, the order added.