Pak Supreme Court warns of suo motu notice if FIR of attack on Imran

Dawn :
The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan has directed Punjab police chief Faisal Shahkar to register a first information report (FIR) in the incident of a gun attack on PTI chief Imran Khan within 24 hours, reports the Dawn.
The interior ministry of Pakistan also asked Punjab govt to register FIR in the Wazirabad firing incident, saying the report must be “based on merits and not on conjectures or speculative allegations”.
In a letter addressed to the provincial chief secretary and Punjab inspector general dated 5 November, the ministry termed the delay in the registration of the FIR a “lacklustre response of the Punjab government to the unfortunate incident”.
On 3 November, while leading the party’s long march in Wazirabad, Punjab, the PTI leader was wounded in a gun attack.
Muazzam Nawaz, a PTI supporter, was killed in the event, and Imran and 14 other people were injured, reports the Dawn.
The issue came up during the hearing of a contempt complaint brought by the interior ministry against Imran for allegedly disobeying a ruling issued by the supreme court on May 25 that set the parameters for the party’s “Azadi March” gathering in Islamabad at the time.

A five-member bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Muneeb Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Mazahar Akbar Naqvi, heard the plea.
During the hearing, CJP Bandial warned of taking suo motu notice if the FIR of the attack was not registered.
Additionally, he questioned the Punjab Inspector General (IG), who joined the hearing via video link from the SC’s Lahore registry, as to why the FIR had not been filed.
“Tell us when the FIR will be registered,” he said, adding that there should a concrete reason for not registering the FIR.
CJP Bandial observed that it had been 90 hours since the attack but the FIR had not yet been registered.
“How will an investigation be initiated without it? And without an FIR, even evidence can be altered,” he added.
IG Shahkar – who has decided to part ways with the Punjab government and refused to work with the current political setup in the province led by Chief Minister Parvez Elahi – informed the court that “we have spoken to the Punjab CM regarding the registration of the FIR and he has expressed some reservations”.
He further said a FIR should also be registered on the complaint of the heirs of the man who was killed in the incident.
Shahkar remarked that Punjab had seen “eight IG’s being replaced in four years”.