Islamabad (Web Desk): The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Saturday rejected the Sindh police's plea to transfer Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Shiekh Rashid Ahmad to Sindh after cases were registered against him in Karachi and Murree.
Earlier today, the AML chief had filed a petition in the (IHC) to bar the police from shifting him to Karachi from Islamabad and to nullify the cases registered against him in Sindh's capital and and Murree.
In the petition, it was stated that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan had accused former president and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chair Asif Ali Zardari of hatching a plot to murder, which Rashid only referred to. It added that the plaintiff in the cases against him was not the victim.
The former minister was arrested on a police complaint filed by Raja Inayatur Rehman, the vice president of PPP Rawalpindi Division, wherein he said that the AML chief, in an interview with ARY’s Waseem Badami on Jan 27, alleged that Zardari recruited terrorists to plan Imran’s murder. His remarks can be heard from the 38-second mark.
The petitioner maintained the stance that cases should not be registered on the basis of political rhetoric and requested that the high court nullify the cases filed against Rashid in Abpara, Murree and Karachi or transfer them to Islamabad.
Rashid named 11 respondents, including the inspector generals of Islamabad, Sindh and Punjab, as well as the interior secretary in the petition.
On Friday, a case was registered against Rashid in Karachi for delivering "immoral” remarks against Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
According to sources, the case was registered at the Mochko police station by a PPP worker over the former minister's comments against party chief Bilawal.
On Thursday, a local court in Islamabad remanded him to two-day police custody following his late-night arrest.
Islamabad police had arrested Sheikh Rashid Ahmed in the early hours of Thursday in connection with remarks he allegedly made against former president Asif Ali Zardari.
Sheikh Rashid was arrested on a complaint filed by Raja Inayat-ur-Rehman, a vice president of PPP Rawalpindi Division, wherein he said that the AML chief, in a television interview on Jan 27, alleged that PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari got the assistance of some terrorist to kill Imran Khan.
Three sections — 120B (criminal conspiracy), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) — have been added to the FIR.
Imran Khan in a television address on Jan 27 had alleged that Zardari was behind a fresh assassination plot — a “plan C” — and a terror group had been engaged for the purpose. He offered no evidence to back up his accusation.
