Finally, police have registered an FIR (first information report) over attack on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan only after apex court’s intervention. The Punjab police registered the case under terrorism charges with detained suspect Naveed being nominated as the prime suspect or the only accused. It is important to note that even by this country’s dismal standards, the authorities concerned had demonstrated blatant disregard for law in refusing to file first information (FIR) report about the dastardly assassination attempt on a former prime minister’s life that left him and 11 others injured and one of his supporters dead. While hearing a different case involving Khan on Monday, clearly annoyed over the police behaviour, honourable Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial had demanded answers from the Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) — who had joined the hearing via video link — as to why the FIR had not been registered 90 hours after the attack on Khan. “How will investigation be initiated without it? And without an FIR, even evidence can be altered.” The IGP had tried shifting the responsibility for failure to do his duty, saying “we have spoken to the Punjab Chief Minister regarding the registration of the FIR and he has expressed some reservations.” The CM has to explain his position, but the law does not require even an SHO to seek the permission of his senior officer to register an FIR where a cognisable offence has been committed.
The way all concerned have been trying to confuse the issue lends strength to a growing suspicion that there is more to it than meets the eye. The interior ministry has sent a letter to Punjab chief secretary asking the Punjab government to register an FIR, which is “based on facts of the incident, not on conjectures or speculative allegations”. Speaking in a similar vein, Federal Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb has been accusing the PTI of wanting to register an ‘unlawful’ report. In making such assertions she and the interior ministry only make themselves look ridiculous. For, as per the law the police are required to register an FIR containing verbatim a complainant’s statement. And as pointed out by legal experts, Section 154 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) empowers police to register an FIR against any citizen; no one, whether a civilian or a military officer, has immunity in this respect. The police also have some answering to do about the manner they handled the case right from the outset. Parting with the standard operating procedure a video of the alleged attacker’s ‘confessional statement’ was hurriedly released to the media, and just as quickly picked up by several federal ministers to term the attack as the work of a religious fanatic, thus inadvertently validating Khan’s conspiracy allegation.
However, in the wake of widespread public outrage over the attack and subsequent developments Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called for a full court commission of the Supreme Court to take up the case. Which looks a non-serious ask for its evident unfeasibility; more practicable would be a judicial commission headed by one or two judges of the apex court. Imran Khan has welcomed formation of such a commission though he also wants the same commission to look into the murder of journalist Arshad Sharif in Kenya. Meanwhile, his party’s long march to Islamabad is resuming from the same place where it was stopped during the gun attack, led by its Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi while Khan recuperates in Lahore. He is to join the march in Rawalpindi in 10 to 14 days time, he said, depending on the march’s speed. No one can predict how and where this standoff will end. One can only hope good sense will prevail on all sides before things spin out of control.
