The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has issued guidelines stating that complaints related to sedition must be filed by a designated representative of the federal or provincial government “after considering the relevant factors of the alleged incident and the reasons for them.”
The IHC released a detailed seven-page ruling in the Shandana Gulzar Khan case. Shandana, a lawmaker and leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), was arrested on January 30 in connection with a sedition case after making divisive remarks on television. Shandana was the third PTI member arrested on suspicion of sedition, following Azam Swati and Shahbaz Gill.
The complainant in the FIR claimed that the PTI leader made serious allegations against the military and tried to incite violence. According to the FIR, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) province was allegedly targeted in a calculated terrorist campaign.
According to the FIR, Shandana tried to incite unrest and violence nationwide. However, the FIR was dismissed on March 24 by a single-judge IHC bench comprising Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani.
In the detailed verdict, the court noted that, based on a plain reading of the contents of the FIR and the transcript of the recorded interview, it seemed that the accused made sarcastic remarks about a few individuals, and there was no evidence of incitement or sedition.
The court provided a seven-point guideline for determining what constitutes sedition, observing that the offense must incite hostility, hatred, or malice between different religious, racial, linguistic, regional, or caste groups or castes.
The verdict stated that such a complaint must be filed by an authorized representative of the federal or provincial government after considering the relevant circumstances of the alleged incident and the reasons behind them.
The court also pointed out that bringing such criminal cases before it served no purpose and strained state resources. This makes it prudent to dismiss such FIRs, the report concluded.
