KARACHI: A court on Wednesday quashed a First Information Report (FIR) against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader retired Captain Muhammad Safdar regarding violating the sanctity of Quaid-i-Azam’s mausoleum.
The Judicial Magistrate (South) quashed the case in the wake of submission of a charge sheet declaring the FIR as “fake”. The investigation officer concluded that the complainant Waqas Khan did not join the investigation and his claims could not be established.
The charge sheet stated the complainant was not present at the time of the incident nor was he spotted in CCTV footage. Besides, the entry of ordinary citizens to the mausoluem was stopped during the visit of PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz. On October 19, Safdar was arrested from a private hotel in Karachi later released on bail the same day.
On November 9, the investigating officer (IO) submitted an amended charge sheet before the judicial magistrate. He and the special public prosecutor then recommended the court to declare the case as “B class”.
Today, the judicial magistrate rejected the police’s recommendation to categorise the FIR as “B class” and declared it as “C class” which implies that case has been squashed and cannot be reopened.
There are three classes of the FIR – A, B, and C. When the FIR is true but the accused persons cannot be traced, the report is classified as A-class while B class means the complaint was found to be “maliciously false”. In C class, the FIR is disposed of as being a non-cognisable offence – meaning the criminal case was filed due to a mistake of fact or the offence is of civil nature.
