ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court directed the chief of Punjab police, Faisal Shahkar, to register within 24 hours a first information report (FIR) of the attack on former prime minister Imran Khan in which he was shot in the leg on Thursday in an apparent attempt on his life.
Umar Ata Bandial, the chief justice, who was hearing a contempt of court petition filed against Khan by the government over his long march to Islamabad, said his court would be forced to take suo motu notice if a complaint was not registered against the prime minister, minister for interior and a military intelligence officer whom he alleges were involved in staging the attack on him.
The direction came when Justice Bandial questioned whether a police case had been registered thus far. When he was told it had not, he noted that over 90 hours had passed since the shooting and ongoing delays to the registration of the FIR would hamper the probe.
“If the police do not investigate, evidence at the crime scene might be destroyed,” he said. “Such evidence would be controversial and would be unacceptable in court,” he added.
Responding to the judge, Shahkar claimed the provincial government of Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, an ally of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party, was not permitting him to register the case.
But the judge observed that “under the criminal justice system, police can register the FIR itself. It’s been more than 90 hours but the FIR is yet to be registered.”
Responding to the development, Fawad Chaudhry, senior vice president of the party, termed the directive as the “first step towards justice”.
“God willing, justice will prevail,” he tweeted.
انصاف کی طرف پہلا قدم۔۔۔۔ انشاللہ٘ انصاف کی فتح ہو گی pic.twitter.com/Ig93meWbFX
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) November 7, 2022
The deadlock over the registration of a case ensued following the reported refusal by Khan to withdraw the name of Maj. Gen. Faisal Naseer, an official of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, from the complaint.
Reportedly, the chief minister was against the “logic” of nominating a serving general in the complaint. He and leaders from PTI held many meetings on the issue where the former attempted to convince them to drop Naseer’s name.
Until at least Sunday, the matter of filing an application with the police was under discussion between the PTI and the Punjab government.
Khan, who was discharged from the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital later Sunday and moved to his ancestral home in the Zaman Park neighbourhood of Lahore, also held a series of meetings with members of his party to discuss the road ahead.
