Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: PTI ally and Awami Muslim League (AML) Chief Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, who was arrested on Thursday in connection with remarks he made against former president Asif Ali Zardari, has now been booked for “immoral” remarks against Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, it emerged on Friday.
Rasheed was arrested by the Islamabad police in the wee hours of Thursday in connection with remarks he made against Zardari. The First Information Report (FIR) was registered at Islamabad’s Aabpara Police Station under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups, etc) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
Rasheed was arrested on a complaint filed by Raja Inayatur Rehman, the vice president of PPP Rawalpindi Division, wherein he said that the AML chief, in a television interview on Jan 27, alleged that Zardari got the assistance of some terrorists to plan former prime minister Imran Khan’s murder.
Subsequently, an Islamabad court had granted police two-day physical remand of the AML leader. Another case was also registered against him at the Murree police station under Section 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public function) and 506(ii) (criminal intimidation) of the PPC for manhandling a police official at the time of the arrest.
However, it emerged on Friday that yet another case was lodged against Rasheed by Karachi’s Mochko police on the complaint of a local PPP leader.
The FIR was registered under Sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 500 (punishment for defamation), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (punishment for criminal in-timidation) of the PPC.
In the FIR, complainant Khuda Bux — a senior vice president of the PPP and a resident of Soomar Goth — said that he was at his party’s office on Suparco Road in Mowach Goth on Feb 2 at around 4:30pm, when he saw Rashid on social media using “extremely filthy and immoral language” against Bilawal while talking to the media outside Islamabad’s Polyclinic Hospital.
The complainant alleged that Rasheed’s remarks had “provoked thousands of workers of the PPP and a large number of people came on to the road” who were then brought under control by him and other local party leaders with “great difficulty”.
“Sheikh Rasheed, chief of AML, had made a conspiracy to create a law and order situation, and trigger clashes and bloodshed. Therefore, legal action should be taken against him,” the FIR said.
