The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday suspended the first information reports (FIRs) registered against Awami Muslim League (AML) chief and former interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed in Mochko and Lasbela.
Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri heard Rashid's petition to stop his transfer to Karachi and to hold contempt of court against the police.
The AML chief's lawyer argued that although the court had restrained further action on the summons of the Aabpara police station, the police registered a case and made an arrest on the same application.
The lawyer said another FIR against Sheikh Rashid was registered in Mochko, Karachi. The court inquired how the case was registered in the port city when the statement was given in Islamabad's Polyclinic Hospital.
The court restrained the police from acting on the cases registered against Sheikh Rashid in Mochko, Karachi and Lasbela, Balochistan.
Further, the IHC issued notices to the attorney general, advocate general and bar councils suspending the FIRs registered against the ex-minister in Mochko and Lasbela.
During the hearing, the court questioned how there can be FIRs registered in different cities on the same incident. The lawyer said that a third FIR was also registered in Murree.
When asked whether an arrest has been made in these three cases, the lawyer said that Sheikh Rashid was arrested in one case.
Justice Jahangiri remarked that according to the law when an arrest is made on one case, it is also made on the rest.
The lawyer also told the court that under physical remand, Rashid had been tied to a chair at an unknown location where he was kept for six hours. During this time, the AML chief's counsel said that Rashid was asked political questions and subjected to violence.
The judge questioned where "this series will stop" and reminded the counsel that "you had filed terrorism cases against the information secretary and the PTV MD and now the same thing is happening against you".
"Imagine what would have happened if the police had arrested the female information secretary," he added.
Last week, a case was registered against Sheikh Rashid in Karachi for delivering "immoral” remarks against Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
Earlier, Sheikh Rashid was arrested by the Islamabad police in a late-night raid on his residence in a private housing society.
The former minister was arrested for publically accusing PPP Co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari of hatching a plot to assassinate Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan.
An Islamabad court remanded Sheikh Rashid to two-day police custody, after which the police requested an Islamabad court for an extension of the AML chief's physical remand.
However, the court denied the police request and ordered the veteran politician to be transferred to Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail on 10-day judicial remand.
