The Sindh High Court (SHC) has combined all the hate-speech cases registered against Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Rauf Siddiqui and has transferred these cases to the Anti-Terrorism Court-I (ATC-I).
The SHC bench heard the plea, requesting the court to combine all hate-speech cases registered against Siddiqui on Monday.
Siddiqui had submitted that he has been named in over 20 cases pertaining to hate speeches against military establishment in different police stations. He requested the court to combine all the cases together since they are of the same nature.
The court, after hearing the arguments from Siddiqui’s counsel and the prosecutor general, ordered mingling of all the identical cases.
“All these cases will be heard by ATC-I,” the SHC decided.
Earlier, as many as 100 cases were registered against MQM chief Altaf Hussain for delivering hate speeches against the military establishment and other security agencies while other party leaders including Siddiqui were named in the charge sheet for facilitating and arranging these hate speeches.
Siddiqui was named as co-accused in over 20 cases under the clauses of the Pakistan Penal Code and sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997, for facilitating the speeches.
