SCBA wants FIR registered as per Imran’s version

The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has demanded the registration of an FIR of the assassination attack on PTI chairman and deposed premier Imran Khan as per his version.

SCBA President Abid Zuberi and Secretary Muqtadar Akhtar Shabbir issued a statement that read that the association had already condemned the attack on the PTI chief that took place on November 3.

“This Association further asserts that it is the fundamental right of every citizen to hold peaceful protests. It is the bounded duty of the State and the law enforcement agencies to protect the life, honor and dignity of every citizen of Pakistan,” it further read.

“This Association further asserts that it is the fundamental right of every citizen to register [an] FIR. It is the failure of the State, not to register [the] FIR as demanded by the former prime minister which is illegal, without jurisdiction and is completely in violation of the judgments of [the] Hon’ble Supreme Court. [The judgments require] that an FIR be registered as per the version of the complainant,” it added.

Imran, who has been pressing for early elections since being ousted as premier after losing a parliament vote in April, was shot at an anti-government rally in Punjab's Wazirabad. He is recovering from leg wounds at his home in Lahore.

A copy of the police report lodged by Wazirabad police and seen by Reuters said a man in the crowd near the PTI chief had taken out a pistol and started shooting, wounding the former premier and 10 other people, one of whom later died. Police said the suspected shooter was arrested after PTI supporter Ibtesam Hasan overpowered him and threw off his aim.

Imran, who has said two shooters had tried to kill him, and his aides have said they will not accept the case registered by the police it until it included the suspects named by him. “We will file a petition,” Imran’s aide Fawad Chaudhry told Reuters, saying the party would want a court to decide on the names given by the former premier.

The PTI chief has accused three people of devising a plan to assassinate him, naming Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and a senior military official.

Zubair Niazi, a relative of Imran and general secretary of the PTI Lahore chapter, had lodged a complaint before the relevant SHO to register the FIR against the prime minister, interior minister and the senior military official.

However, the FIR has been registered on the complaint of a sub-inspector police and the three top officials cited by the PTI chief have not been nominated in the case.

It is pertinent to mention that PTI-backed Hamid Khan Group’s Zuberi won the SCBA elections last month by beating Independent Lawyers Group, known as Asma Jahangir Group, after four years.

Zuberi had bagged 1,347 votes against Asma Jahangir Group candidate Advocate Khalid Javed's 1,148.

The PTI and PML-Q both backed Zuberi as their candidate. Even PTI Senator Ali Zafar, who was associated with the Asma Jahangir Group, supported Zuberi.

(With input from Reuters)