The image shows Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani (right) along with his brother Farhan Ghani. — [email protected]
FIR includes charges of attempted murder and terrorism.
FIR names Farhan and his aides over physical assault.
Saeed Ghani says brother will prove innocence in court.
KARACHI: Karachi police have registered a case against Farhan Ghani, a PPP leader and chairman of Chanesar Town, who is the brother of Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani.
The case has been filed at the Ferozabad police station on the complaint of a government employee, Hafiz Sohail, who alleged that he was attacked while supervising fibre cable work on a service road off Shahrah-e-Faisal on August 22.
The FIR named Farhan and his five associates under charges of attempted murder and terrorism, along with other provisions of the law.
The PPP leader and town chairman is currently in police custody as he, along with four of his aides, surrendered overnight.
The complainant said in the FIR that he is a government employee and was tasked to supervise underground fibre cable work. He said that he was present on the site when around 20 to 25 men, including Farhan, Qamar Ahmed and Shakeel, arrived in three vehicles.
The group allegedly confronted Sohail, asking him to stop the work and questioning whether he had permission to dig the road, says the FIR.
Sohail said that he told them he held all the relevant NOCs, stressing that the work was being carried out with the approval of all relevant authorities.
He claimed that Farhan’s men then assaulted him, pointed weapons at him with the intention to kill. He further said that they took him to a nearby petrol station office, where he was tortured.
In the meantime, a police van arrived at the scene, rescuing him from the group, took him to the police station, the FIR added.
Reacting to the report, the LG minister said that his brother, along with his associates, would face the law following the registration of a case against them.
In a statement issued in the early hours of Sunday, the minister confirmed that an altercation had taken place the previous day between Farhan and Sohail.
He said that Sohail had exercised his legal right by lodging an FIR over the incident.
The minister added that Farhan and the others involved would present themselves before the authorities and contest the case in court.
“They will prove their innocence before the court,” the minister said.
A man wades through a flooded street during heavy monsoon rains in Rawalpindi on July 17, 2025. — AFP
The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has issued a flash flood warning as the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has forecast continued wet weather in different areas of the province.
In its weather advisory, the provincial body said that downpours are likely to swell local streams and rivers today, with the risk of flooding in districts including Chitral, Swat, Shangla, Buner, Kohistan and Abbottabad. Persistent rain is likely to cause landslides in mountainous areas, threatening road access and cutting off remote communities, it added.
It noted that low-lying parts of Peshawar, Nowshera and Mardan may also face urban flooding.
The PDMA has warned that strong winds and heavy showers could damage mud houses and fragile structures such as mud houses, walls, electricity poles, billboards, vehicles and solar panels.
Local administrations, police and rescue services have been placed on high alert, while the public and tourists have been advised to avoid unnecessary travel, keep away from riverbanks and stay updated to avoid any mishaps.
In its weather forecast, the PMD also warned of widespread heavy rains that could trigger flash floods and landslides in several parts of the country during the next 24 hours.
According to the forecast, strong downpours may cause flooding in local streams and rivers across Chitral, Swat, Shangla, Buner, Kohistan, Mansehra, Abbottabad, Charsadda, Nowshera, Swabi and Mardan.
Heavy showers are also expected in Murree, the Galliyat region.
In its weather forecast for other parts of the country, the Met Office said that heavy downpours are likely in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, north-eastern Punjab, Kashmir and Dera Ghazi Khan, raising the risk of overflowing seasonal waterways.
The national forecaster has cautioned that low-lying areas in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Lahore, Sialkot, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Peshawar, Nowshera and Mardan may also face waterlogging.
The Met Office said that north-eastern Punjab could see particularly intense showers, while southern Punjab, north-eastern Balochistan and south-eastern Sindh are also likely to receive rain with thunder during the evening and night.
In Punjab, the provincial PDMA has raised concerns over rising water levels in the Ravi, Chenab, Sutlej and Jhelum rivers.
The authority warned that flooding is possible in northern and north-eastern districts, with the Sutlej already flowing at a high level near Ganda Singh Wala and expected to remain elevated for at least 48 hours.
Rescue teams have been deployed to sensitive areas, while announcements are being made at mosques and through local authorities to alert communities at risk.
People have been advised to contact the PDMA helpline 1129 in case of emergencies.
According to the advisory, rivers including the Ravi, Chenab, Sutlej and Jhelum could experience medium to high levels of flooding, with the risk of flash floods in northern and north-eastern districts.
Instructions have been issued to ensure that all emergency arrangements are in place, with rescue units already deployed to vulnerable areas.
Supreme Court Justice Athar Minallah on Saturday elaborated on the difficulties judges faced regarding cases of missing persons and enforced disappearances in the face of non-cooperation by the state and lawmakers.
The judge was attending a documentary screening organised by rights group Defence for Human Rights Pakistan, where he delivered remarks to attendees and noted that cases regarding missing persons and disappearances were the most difficult he had come across.
Addressing the gathering, Justice Minallah said that when he ordered that disappearances be investigated or missing people be found, “the authorities would come and they would all say that we don’t know where they are.”
At this, the judge pointed out: “The judge and the court cannot do anything when you don’t have independent investigators.”
Minallah added: “Every judge of the Supreme Court is responsible personally for every violation of fundamental rights that takes place in Pakistan.”
The judge recounted an instance when he suddenly heard the sound of a child crying in his courtroom. Upon asking his staff, the child came forward with his grandmother.
“That was Mudassar Naaru’s child,” Minallah said, referring to the journalist who went missing in 2018. “His mother had passed away and the state had failed to at least let them know whether he was alive, he was dead, or where he was.
“Yes, I wanted to sensitise the issue because there was nothing else that I could do and I would go by the constitution,” he added.
“Under the Constitution, the executive head is the prime minister. I passed an order that this child and his grandmother be taken to the then-prime minister of Pakistan.
“It’s very, very difficult for the courts when the state is not cooperating with you. But the Constitution says that it is the prime minister, the cabinet and then the provinces, the chief minister and the ministers who are responsible. You can’t blame someone else.”
Minallah recalled that he summoned the then-PM to appear in court. “Naaru’s son was also there. He (the prime minister) also assured that child [in court], that his (Naaru’s) whereabouts would be known,” he stated.
“Well, I was in haste elevated to the Supreme Court. But before that, let me say to you, the Islamabad High Court, the first priority was to have competent and fearless judges,” Minallah said. “And for a judge or for a court, the only test is the confidence of the people in that court.”
The judge noted that it was the duty of the state to investigate these incidents and hold people accountable. Recalling the first judgment he gave, he stated that the directions he gave were “extremely effective during the four-year period that I served as the chief justice”.
“I had made it very clear to the executive that I will not tolerate a single incident of enforced disappearance from within my jurisdiction,” he said.
“But let me say a word. As a judge, I have always respected the parliament and the elected representatives,” he continued. “They have been victims for the past 77 years.”
However, the judge said that in his experience, “those who are in the government … don’t want to be told that this is an issue. And they also want to pretend that this is not an issue. It is an issue.
“It is for the political leadership. When they are in opposition, they are absolutely different.”
Minallah said that during the four years he served as the Islamabad High Court’s chief justice, students from Balochistan would approach the court about disappearances in the province.
“I knew I didn’t have the jurisdiction, but I assumed the jurisdiction,” he said, noting that the Supreme Court and other courts were there.
“When the Balochistan students came, I didn’t know what to do because it was out of my jurisdiction. The investigations had to take place in Balochistan. But the law did provide me with that jurisdiction.”
The judge urged the need for an independent judiciary, adding that the fact that women from Balochistan had to march in the streets for rights was a matter of “shame” for everyone and him.
Concluding his speech, he said: “Those holding exalted offices, I am afraid they haven’t spoken truth in the last 77 years. The day they start speaking the truth, things will change. We have heard some sitting ministers, some former ministers. I wish one day they will also speak the truth because we all know the truth. Everyone knows the truth, but we pretend that we do not know the truth.”
Earlier this week, Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Awan assured the National Judicial Policy Making Committee that a mechanism for producing detained people in cases of enforced disappearances would be presented before the body in its next meeting.
Earlier this month, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) revealed that enforced disappearances and other issues were fuelling public alienation and political instability in Balochistan following a fact-finding mission to the province.
According to the report, titled Balochistan’s Crisis of Trust, the HRCP undertook the mission from July 9-12 to respond to the “escalating concerns over the deteriorating state of fundamental rights and civic freedoms in the province”.
The mission aimed to examine the state of fundamental freedoms in the province and the broader impact of conflict and militarisation on civilian life, the report said in its terms of reference.
In the first half of 2025, a total of 125 missing persons cases were submitted to the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances. The total number of cases received up till June 2025 was 10,592, while 1,914 cases of them were disposed of and 6,786 were traced, the commission said.
In December 2024, the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court emphasised that only parliament held the authority to address and resolve the longstanding, yet unlawful, practice of enforced disappearances — a persistent issue that has plagued the nation for decades.
Pakistan’s two major political parties in the current ruling dispensation – the PMLN and the PPP on Saturday announced to jointly contest the upcoming byelections.
Pakistan’s ruling parties, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), announced on Saturday that they will jointly contest the upcoming by-elections, signalling a strategic alliance ahead of crucial polls.
The agreement was unveiled at a joint press conference, where leaders of both parties said the cooperation would extend to national and provincial assembly seats. The alliance comes after several constituencies fell vacant following the conviction of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf(PTI) leaders in connection with the May 9, 2023 riots.
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Under the schedule released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), by-elections for NA-66 Wazirabad, NA-129 Lahore-XIII, and PP-87Mianwali-III are slated for September 18. A second phase covering NA-143 Sahiwal-III, NA-185 DG Khan-II, PP-203 Sahiwal-VI, NA-96 Faisalabad-II, NA-104 Faisalabad-X, and PP-98 Faisalabad-I will follow on October 5.
“Both parties (PPP and PML-N) have agreed to contest the by-elections together,” said Hanif Abbasi, a PML-N leader, who also holds the federal railways portfolio.
Both parties made the decision in the country’s best interest, he said. “We are allies, and the leadership of both parties has shown maturity.” PPP leader Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said that both parties had reached a seat-adjustment formula, under which the candidate from the party that finished runner-up in the previous general election would be fielded again from that particular constituency.
“We welcome the PML-N delegation and have finalised the electoral arrangements amicably,” he said and also thanked Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for his role in finalising the agreement.
It was so far not clear if the PTI would contest the elections as Imran Khan has left the decision about taking part in the polls to the senior leaders of the party.
The 72-year-old cricketer-turned-politician has been behind bars since August 2023 after he was booked in multiple cases.
On May 9, 2023, Khan’s party workers vandalised a dozen military installations, including the Jinnah House (Lahore Corps Commander House), Mianwali Airbase and the ISI building in Faisalabad, some 130 kms from Lahore.
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The Army headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi was also attacked by the mob for the first time, protesting Khan’s arrest.
Last month, different courts announced verdicts in the cases filed after the violence, convicting leaders and workers including the leader of opposition in the National Assembly Omer Ayub Khan and leader of opposition in the Senate Shibli Faraz.
Earlier last year, after the February general elections, Imran Khan had called the PML-N and the PPP ’mandate thieves’ alleging that they stole his party’s seats by manipulating results.
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court’s Justice Khalid Ishaq on Saturday dismissed petitions filed by former opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly Malik Ahmad Khan Bhachar and former MNA Muhammad Ahmad Chatha, who challenged the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) notifications that de-notified them.
The court observed that since the petitioners are fugitives from justice in every case, they cannot invoke this court’s jurisdiction for judicial review.
The subtle but decisive distinction of a “nexus to the case” is the key factor that conclusively determines the applicability—or otherwise—of the fugitive disentitlement doctrine in a civil matter brought by a criminal fugitive.
Applying this doctrine to the facts of these cases leads to the inescapable conclusion that the ECP’s notifications, challenged through these constitutional petitions, are inextricably linked to the petitioners’ convictions.
The respondents questioned the maintainability of these petitions, arguing that the petitioners are convicts who have not submitted themselves to due process, remain at large, and have active perpetual arrest warrants. Therefore, they asserted, the petitioners are not entitled to invoke this court’s extraordinary constitutional jurisdiction under Article 199 of the Constitution.
The Additional Attorney General for Pakistan argued this point of maintainability in reliance on various judgments. In brief, the Additional Attorney General contended that judicial review jurisdiction cannot be granted to the petitioners in these circumstances since equitable jurisdiction should not aid a fugitive from justice.
He further argued that a citizen seeking this court’s intervention must first show how he is entitled to a remedy when he is guilty of flouting a judicial order—specifically, fleeing after conviction.
Finally, he stated that the jurisdiction under Article 199 is extraordinary and equitable and should not be exercised by someone who has approached the court with “unclean hands,” being a fugitive from justice. The law officers representing the ECP largely adopted his arguments.
Responding to the question of maintainability, the petitioners’ counsel argued that despite a criminal conviction, civil rights remain protected. For example, challenging the ECP’s impugned notifications via Article 199 is unrelated to the criminal conviction, and the fugitive status should only affect the specific cases in which conviction occurred—not all matters.
It is worth mentioning that the petitioners had challenged their disqualification and sought to halt upcoming by-polls in their constituencies.
The petitioners’ counsel argued that no proceedings can be initiated against a member of the assembly without a reference from the Speaker. They noted that the lawmakers were disqualified without being heard, which violates the principles of natural justice.
The ECP disqualified the petitioners following their convictions in the May 9 cases by anti-terrorism courts. The trial court had sentenced each to 10 years’ imprisonment.
Lahore High Court (LHC) Justice Khalid Ishaq has dismissed pleas of former opposition leader in Punjab Assembly Malik Ahmad Khan Bhachar and ex-MNA Muhammad Ahmad Chatha challenging the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) notifications de-notifying them.
The judge observed that that since the petitioners were fugitives from justice, they could not invoke the court jurisdiction for judicial review.
The court concluded that the ECP notifications impugned through the constitutional petitions were linked to conviction of the petitioners.
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The respondents questioned that the maintainability of the petitions on the ground that the petitioners were convicts who had not surrendered themselves to the due process of law, were at large and their perpetual arrest warrants had been issued. Therefore, they were not entitled to invoke the extraordinary constitutional jurisdiction of the court in terms of Article 199 of the Constitution.
The additional attorney general for Pakistan contended that the jurisdiction of judicial review could not be invoked in favour of the petitioners as it was not meant to act in aid of a fugitive from justice. A citizen seeking revision of an order has to satisfy at the outset as to how he is entitled to such a remedy when he is guilty of setting a judicial order at naught by fleeing after conviction.
In addition, the additional attorney general submitted that the jurisdiction under Article 199 could not be invoked by a fugitive. The law officers representing the ECP adopted similar submissions.
The petitioners’ counsel argued that irrespective of conviction, civil rights of a person were protected and disadvantage, if any, for being a fugitive, only related to the case in which the petitioners had been convicted and not all other cases.
The petitioners had challenged their disqualification and sought halting of by-polls in their constituencies.
Their counsel had argued that no proceedings could be initiated against an assembly member without a reference sent by the speaker.
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They contended that the lawmakers had been disqualified without being given an opportunity to be heard, which violated the principles of natural justice.
The ECP had disqualified the petitioners following their conviction in May 9 cases by the anti-terrorism courts.
The trial court had handed down 10-year imprisonment each to them.
