Khawaja Sharif ‘murder plot’: FIA told not to arrest two named in FIR

Petitioners demand FIA provide them a copy of the FIR.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court on Thursday directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) not to arrest chief minister’s former principal secretary Dr Tauqeer Shah and a former staff officer Talha Burki over allegation of issuing a false intelligence report about a murder plot against former LHC chief justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif.

Shah and Burki have been named in the FIR along with three Special Branch officials, who were granted protective bails by the LHC on Wednesday.

Justice Anwarul Haq issued the order on petitions of Shah and Burki seeking directions to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to provide them a copy of the FIR and not to harass them. The judge directed a deputy attorney general to provide a copy of the FIR to the petitioners and adjourned hearing till Friday (today).

The petitioners, through their counsel Advocate Khawaja Haris, said that they had no role in the incident and that a judicial commission had acquitted them of the charges. Haris said despite the findings of the judicial commission, the interior ministry had ordered registration of an FIR against them due to ‘political differences’.

Haris said that his clients had approached the FIA director general, the interior ministry, the FIA Lahore chapter, and the sessions judges in Lahore and Rawalpindi but a copy of the FIR was not given to them. He said that a magistrate had issued arrest warrants for the petitioners without having copy of the FIR or any record of the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 10^th, 2012.