ISLAMABAD: Pakistani police have registered a case against former prime minister Imran Khan, top officials his government and a hundred other unnamed individuals over sloganeering against a Pakistani delegation at the Prophet's Mosque in Saudi Arabia.
The Madinah police on Friday arrested at least five Pakistani nationals for “abusing and insulting” Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb and Minister for Narcotics Control Shahzain Bugti at the Prophet’s Mosque in the city. Arrests were also made for insulting and abusing a woman and her companions of Pakistani nationality in the courtyard of the Prophet’s Mosque.
A spokesperson for the Madinah Police said their actions contradicted the “sanctity of the place” and the suspects were “referred to the competent authorities after legal procedures were completed against them.”
In Pakistan, the case has been registered at the Madinah Town police station in Faisalabad under sections 295, 295-A, 296, and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code, also referred to as the blasphemy laws. The sections relate to "harming a place of worship with the intent to insult a religion," "deliberate and malicious intent to outrage religious sentiment," "disturbing religious assembly and abetment."
“A series of FIRs ordered under instructions of interior ministry, bring it on we will fight,” former information minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, who has also been nominated in the case, said on Twitter.
Others named in First Information Report (FIR) included former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, his nephew Sheikh Rashid Shafiq, former National Assembly deputy speaker Qasim Suri, Sahibzada Jahangir and Aneel Musarrat.
The complainant, Muhammad Naeem, said the incident at the Prophet’s Mosque was a “planned-out scheme and conspiracy,” and the videos of the incident statements by PTI leaders ahead of the delegation’s visit to Saudi Arabia were evidence of it.
Naeem pleaded the police to take action against 100-150 unknown accused as well for “hurting sentiments of Muslims” across the globe.
After the registration of the case, Ahmed’s nephew, who is a National Assembly member, was arrested on Sunday upon his arrival at the Islamabad airport from Saudi Arabia.
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, however, defended the registration of the case for violating sanctity of the Prophet's Mosque. “People were instigated under a plan... there can be no forgiveness for what these people have done,” he said.
Blasphemy is a highly sensitive issue in Pakistan where mere allegations have led to lynchings and mob violence.
Advocate Abid Saqi, former vice-chairman of Pakistan Bar Council, said all accused in the case would have to follow the legal procedure to prove their innocence. “They can obtain pre-arrest bails and then follow legal proceedings in a court of law,” he told Arab News.
Saqi said the accused could move the high court to get the case quashed as well, but usually the high courts "refrain from interfering in such cases."
“This could be a long legal fight for all the accused to prove their innocence,” he said.
Advocate Faisal Chaudhry, who is the brother of Chaudhry Fawad Hussain and has previously worked with the PTI party, said legally the case was “weak and part of political victimization,” because the alleged crime happened in Saudi Arabia where Pakistani laws did not have jurisdiction.
“We will pursue all legal avenues available for justice,” he told Arab News.
