LAHORE
Lahore High Court (LHC) has rejected former federal minister Fawad Chaudhry petition to conduct the trial by merging all the May 9 related cases against him.
A 2-member bench of LHC comprising Justice Syed Shahbaz Rizvi and Justice Tariq Salim Sheikh issued 16-page decision on the petition of Fawad Chaudhry., Justice Tariq Salim Sheikh authored the decision.
Justice Tariq Salim Sheikh settled the legal point in the decision that the cases which have no similarity cannot be clubbed.
Justice Tariq Salim Sheikh wrote in his decision Fawad Chaudhry was federal minister in PTI government. He remained federal minister from 2018 to 2022. PTI founder was removed from the office of prime minister through vote of no confidence in April 2022.
PTI started resistance following the removal of PTI founder from the post of Prime Minister (PM) which plunged the country into deep crisis.
The decision said PTI workers staged protest all over the country following arrest of PTI founder on May 9. Army installations were targeted in several cities including Lahore, Karachi, Multan, Faisalabad and Sargodha as a result of protest. The workers targeted public places as well. Police registered cases as a result of this violent protest. It was written in decision that 11 different cases were registered in Lahore only after May 9.
According to petitioner he was nominated in the cases for uploading messages in social media.
Justice Tariq Salim Sheikh said in decision conducting prosecution repeatedly in the cases of same nature is violation of article 13-A of the constitution. High court had rejected conducting investigation repeatedly in Sanam Javed case. Article 13-A of the constitution will be applicable wherein any person was convicted or was declared criminal. In the present case there is long list of allegations and mention of violent incidents has been made. The petitioner cannot give reference of decision regarding Sanam Javed in this case.
It was said in the decision if trial judge feels similarity in some cases then he can consolidate them under section 239 of CRPC.
This debate is there in judicial opinion in our country if second FIR can be lodged of one incident or otherwise. Article 13-A of the constitution says a citizen cannot be convicted again in the case of similar nature. In the present case every FIR has different incident, different time and different venue.
According to decision there are different accused persons in all cases. Violent incidents are mentioned therein. One thing is common in them that these all cases were registered due to situation which arose following the arrest of PTI founder.
The petitioner is charged with inciting the people through social media in all cases.
As per petitioner May 9 incidents took place after arrest of PTI founder. He was nominated in zimnis (supplementary) in all cases. Cases against him are registered in Lahore, Karachi, Multan, Faisalabad and other cities. Therefore, court rejects the plea for merging all trials and transferring them to Faisalabad.
