Katchi FIR registered against Zulfiqar Mirza’s ‘blasphemy’

A non-formal case – ‘katchi’ first information report (FIR) – was lodged against former Sindh home minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza at the Kalakot police station, allegedly for blasphemous remarks against the Holy Prophet (pbuh) at a press conference in Lyari recently.
The ‘unofficial’ FIR was registered at the Camp Office of Sindh Industries and Commerce Minister Rauf Siddiqui on Saturday. Sources told Pakistan Today that Siddiqui had approached the newly-appointed Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mushtaq Shah, and Deputy Inspector General South Zone Commander Shaukat who asked the minister not to personally visit the police station as Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was in the city.
As soon as the premier left the city, the Kalakot station house officer (SHO) along with the head mohrar and an assistant-sub-inspector (ASI) reached the minister’s office, where a case under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code was lodged. “However, the SHO told Siddiqui that the ‘pakki’ or official FIR would be registered after noting down the commerce minister’s complaint,” the sources said.
Legal experts told Pakistan Today that the FIR registered was ‘katchi’, and the petitioner has to record his statement before the police officials concerned and only after that the SHO would decided of a formal complaint can be registered or not under Section 154 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Earlier, addressing a press conference at his camp office, the provincial minister said he had approached the District and Sessions Court-V (Central) for registering an FIR against Mirza for his sacrilegious remarks. Quoting a number of incidents in the past in which the whole country stood up against blasphemy such as the Denmark issue, Siddiqui also pointed out a number of television programmes in which the former home minister had compared his moves with the Karbala martyrs.