PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday quashed First Information Report (FIR) against former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa law minister Barrister Arshad Abdullah of the Awami National Party (ANP) and 20 ANP workers charged with assaulting police officials by pointing guns at them and preventing them from performing duty by force.
A single bench of Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan quashed the FIR, with the observation that the case was showing malafide intention on part of the police and thus all the proceedings, investigation and charge sheet filed against the petitioners be cancelled.
A case was filed against Arshad Abdullah and his accomplices on April 26, 2013 at the Utmanzai Police Station for allegedly assaulting police officials by pointing guns at them. Consequently, the police charged him under Sections 183, 189, 149, 145, 506, 201 and 353 of the Pakistan Penal Code, but the former minister managed to secure bail before arrest.
Police official Muhammad Tariq was the complainant in the FIR, claiming that the former law minister along with armed ANP workers came to the police post and harassed them. The FIR said that one Farid was arrested by the police for being armed with a pistol. It said the police were going to release the man on bail, but in the meantime the minister along with armed ANP workers came to the spot and harassed the policemen over the arrest of the party worker.
The police then charged the law minister and 20 other ANP workers. The petitioners’ lawyer Abdul Lateef Afridi said the police case was politically motivated and showing malafide intention. He said the minister was addressing a public meeting in Rajjar in Charsadda district during his election campaign and had not gone to the police post along with the workers.
