LAHORE: A blasphemy case filed against the top leadership of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) made the party reach out to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday.
Party’s senior vice president Fawad Chaudhary approached the court to file a petition, stating the court should take action against all the fraudulent cases being registered against PTI.
Responding to the request, the IHC ordered the Interior Secretary to make sure that the party leadership is not harassed until May 9 and up till then, no further inquiry be initiated against them.
The former minister further stated that the court should refrain the state institutions from the illegal harassment of the party activists and furthermore issue instructions to record the cases registered across the country.
Any action taken by the police or the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) should be considered illegal by the orders of the high court.
The petition is scheduled to be heard by Chief Justice Athar Minallah.
It merits mention here that a case had been registered against PTI chairman Imran Khan and Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed over the Masjid-e-Nabawi incident.
One Qazi Muhammad Tariq has registered the case at the New Airport police station on the matter of desecration of Masjid-e-Nabawi by inappropriate behaviour and chanting of slogans on the premises.
In addition, Khan, Rasheed, Chaudhry, Shahbaz Gill, and Murad Saeed have been nominated in the case.
As per the lawsuit, a group of miscreants headed by Rasheed was sent to Saudi Arabia, adding that the second group from Britain was headed by Sahibzada Jahangir and included Aneel Musarrat, Nabeel Musarrat, Rana Abdul Sattar, Amir Ilyas, Ejaz Haq and Gohar Jilani.
The registered case further stated that the incident that took place in Masjid-e-Nabawi hurt the feelings of Muslims.
Meanwhile, an application for registration of a case against Khan and Sheikh Rashid has also been submitted at the Margalla police station.
As per the context of the application, the PTI workers in Saudi Arabia have violated the sterility of the Holy site, adding that the whole affair was planned in Pakistan, Sheikh Rashid had pre-planned the Masjid-e-Nabawi incident.
A case should be registered against the former Interior Minister, it added.
The petition was filed by a citizen named Muhammad Nawaz Bhatti seeking registration of the aforementioned case.
Earlier, an FIR has also been lodged against former prime minister Khan and other top leadership of the party in Faisalabad.
According to the report, the charges are brought for involvement in the incident at Masjid-e-Nabwi, where Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and federal ministers were ridiculed by some Pakistani pilgrims.
The former Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad’s nephew was arrested by the government as soon as his plane landed at New Islamabad International Airport.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan hinted that former prime minister Khan could be arrested in a case relating to sloganeering against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his delegation.
Sanaullah said that the incident relating to the harassment of PML-N leaders at the holy mosque was preplanned and about 100-150 people were involved in the incident.
The minister further said that the Saudi government has decided to take action against the people involved in the incident, adding that some people will be deported from the Kingdom.
