No more FIRs against Swati, rules BHC

The Balochistan High Court (BHC) barred the police on Tuesday from registering any more first information reports (FIRs) against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and former federal minister Azam Swati over his controversial tweets and speeches.

A BHC division bench, comprising Justice Muhammad Kamran Khan Mullakhail and Justice Muhammad Amir Rana, passed the order on a constitutional petition filed by Swati’s son, following registration of five FIRs on public complaints about the use of derogatory language against state institutions.

The court ordered that the respondents had been directed not to lodge any FIR in respect of the allegation levelled in the appended FIRs already lodged at Kuchlak, Zhob, Khuzdar, Pasni, and other parts of the province. “No similar FIRs on similar allegations can be registered by the police”, the bench ordered.

Read PTI submits petition for Swati in BHC

Senior advocates Naseebullah Tareen and Syed Iqbal Shah appeared before the court on behalf of Swati, who has been kept in Quetta. The police have already obtained five-day remand of the PTI leader in connection with the cases. The bench directed the Balochistan police chief to submit a report in this regard.

Swati’s son also filed another petition, seeking the quashing of the FIRs against his father. Advocate Tareen argued that a second FIR could not be registered against Swati over one incident, adding that the one FIR had already been lodged against him in Islamabad.

The petitioner also requested the court not to move his father to Khuzdar, Gwadar, Zhob and other parts of Balochistan in those same FIRs. Later, the bench adjourned the hearings of both the petitions until December 9 and 20.