After the Supreme Court warned that it would initiate suo motu proceedings if the Punjab police failed to register an FIR regarding the assassination attempt on former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, the provincial police finally registered the case under terrorism charges, with detained suspect Naveed being nominated as the prime accused.
The FIR lodged on the complaint of Sub-Inspector Amir Shahzad at 11:10pm on Monday under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, and Section 302, 324, and 440 of the Pakistan Penal Code was registered after a delay of three days.
Even though the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief accused Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, and a senior intelligence officer Major General Faisal Naseer of the alleged conspiracy to kill him, the FIR did not mention any of these names.
The senior government and military men were nominated in an application filed by a PTI leader, Zubair Khan Niazi, for the registration of the case.
According to events that transpired before the registration of the case, the applicant and the police staff locked horns over the generation of an e-tag for the application. A police official who shared the details with Dawn said the staff refused to issue the e-tag without receiving the copy of the application and the contents it was carrying.
The applicant was hesitating to drop it at the front desk of the police station saying that his political party leadership wanted to keep the contents of the application secret due to the sensitivity of the matter, the official added. The issue remained unresolved until the police registered the FIR on the complaint of a sub-inspector, he added.
The FIR came after IGP Faisal Shahkar in line with the directives of the apex court ordered the Gujrat district police officer (DPO) to lodge the case so a copy of the FIR could be submitted to the SC today. He also conveyed to the DPO the decision of Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial who had ordered him to register the case within 24 hours. “The DPO had been conveyed to act as per law as per directions of the SC,” Mr Shahkar said.
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