‘Multiple FIRs for single offence against law’

Issuing the detailed verdict on Sheikh Rashid Ahmed’s petition to dismiss multiple cases filed against him across the country over his “indecent” comments about Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) declared that only one first information report (FIR) could be registered per incident, and only with the relevant police station.

Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, in a 41-page full verdict issued on Saturday, underscored that it was a well-settled principle of law that a person could not be prosecuted multiple times for the same offence.

On June 25, the IHC dismissed the case filed against the Awami Muslim League (AML) chief in February last year for using offensive words against the PPP chief. The FIR was registered by Karachi’s Mochko police station in Keamari on a complaint of a local PPP leader.

The high court expressed regret over the fact that political parties, while in power, often lodge baseless cases against their political opponents, filing multiple cases for the same charge in different parts of the country, according to the verdict.

It added that this practice of harassing and torturing political opponents was a blatant violation of established laws of the land.

The detailed verdict further said that apart from the relevant police station, no other FIR could be registered for a single incident.