QUETTA: A two-member bench of the Balochistan High Court (BHC) dismissed on Monday a first information report (FIR) nominating Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in the murder case of senior Supreme Court lawyer Abdul Razzaq Shar.
Announcing the verdict on the plea of the Insaf Lawyers Forum (ILF), the bench — comprising BHC Chief Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Gul Hasan Tareen — quashed the murder case and suspended the arrest warrant issued against Khan by the judicial magistrate.
“Alhamdulillah, the court has dismissed the FIR registered against Imran Khan in Bijli Road police station in Quetta, once again Imran Khan has been vindicated in a false case, congratulations to all Pakistan on the victory of justice,” Khan’s counsel Naeem Haider Panjutha wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The deposed prime minister, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote last April, was booked in a murder case of the senior SC lawyer, who was gunned down by unidentified assailants on Airport Road in Quetta, Balochistan in June this year.
The FIR registered against Khan, and others on the complaint of the slain lawyer’s son, Advocate Siraj Ahmed, in Quetta, under the charges of murder, Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) and other provisions.
Khan then moved the Supreme Court seeking to quash the FIRs against him and secured relief as the apex court restrained the authorities from arresting him.
Last week, the apex court maintained its stay order against the arrest of PTI chairman in the murder case. A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial heard the petition against addition of Khan’s name in the FIR.
Before his assassination, Razzaq had filed a court petition, pleading that treason proceedings could be initiated against Khan for unconstitutionally dissolving National Assembly after he lost a vote of confidence in April, 2022.
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