SHC bars police from taking action against Defence, Clifton residents

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday suspended taking action on the FIR registered against residents of Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and Clifton for holding a demonstration outside the Cantonment Board Clifton’s (CBC) office to protest for drainage of rainwater from their neighbourhoods after last month’s devastating monsoon downpour.

Maria Masood and other petitioners said the residents of DHA and Clifton were protesting because the authorities had not drained rainwater from their neighbourhoods, causing them hardships and losses of millions of rupees.

They said that instead of taking measures for removing rainwater from their streets and starting a clean-up drive, the CBC registered an FIR against the residents who were protesting against the authorities over their failure to clear their neighbourhoods of water.

The case registered at the Darakhshan police station claimed that the residents were spreading fear, harassing people, engaging in vandalism, creating hindrances in official work, fighting with security guards and police officials as well as using offensive language against government institutions during their protest.

The court asked the investigating officer about the applicability of sections 147 and 148 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) in the FIR, but he was not able to justify the applicability of the sections on the facts disclosed in the complaint that were only cognisable offences.

The court said that the alleged main offences were sections 353 and 506 of the PPC that were non-cognisable offences, and the police had no authority to lodge an FIR thereunder without following the procedure provided under sections 155 and 156 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro suspended taking action on the FIR until the next date of hearing, but directed the IO to continue the investigation and submit a progress report for the court’s perusal by September 24.

The FIR was registered on the complaint of a CBC official against the residents who had held a protest over the non-provision of amenities and the slackness of the authorities in removing rainwater from their neighbourhoods despite the passage of almost a week since the heavy monsoon rain.

FIR No. 419/20 was lodged on the complaint of Munawwar Hussain, a CBC employee, at the Darakhshan police station. The complainant said that scores of men, women and children participated in the protest after their houses were submerged by rainwater on August 27.

However, he added, a group of 30 to 35 people forcibly entered the CBC building on Khayaban-e-Rahat and created a law and order situation on August 31. Though the FIR has been registered against several protesters, the complainant has named 22 people who participated in the hours-long protest.

Police have placed multiple sections of the PPC in the FIR, including 353, 148, 147 and 506/34. They said they had registered a case after the CBC official approached them with a request to book the protesters for attempting to enter their office, smashing windows and vandalising property during the protest.