PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday ordered the quashing of a case registered against 18 students of a leading institution of higher education, including a few Afghan nationals, over rioting and wrongful confinement of staff members during a demonstration against in-person examination.

A bench consisting of Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Shakeel Ahmad accepted a petition jointly filed by the Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar, students, who claimed they were falsely implicated in the case after a demonstration was held near their institute in Peshawar on Jan 27, 2021, in favour of online examination instead of the scheduled in-person one.

The police had registered an FIR of the incident on the complaint of security officer of the institute Mah Munir under the Pakistan Penal Code’s sections 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly), 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

The petitioners had secured pre-arrest bail from an additional district and sessions judge last year after the incident.

Afghans among 18 IMS students booked over violence, staff confinement

Mehwish Muhib Kakakhel, lawyer for the petitioners, contended that the charges against his clients were false and were levelled by the university only to harass and humiliate the protesting students.

She contended that the suspects nominated in the FIR were innocent and that there was no evidence of their presence at the place of protest.

The counsel argued that the students, who belonged to Afghanistan, were in the country either due to their government’s sponsorship programmes or on visa issued by the Pakistani government for other reasons.

She added that the students lived in the official accommodation of the institute and that on the day of the incident, they were locked inside after the gates were closed.

The lawyer argued that most of the accused had been granted admissions by the leading foreign universities for higher education.

She contended that the FIR was lodged with mala fide intentions and that there was no likelihood of the conviction of any of the accused but the case would have a ‘negative impact on their educational pursuit’.

The counsel argued that even if the petitioners were staging a protest over a matter, it was their right guaranteed and protected by the Constitution.

She insisted that none of his clients attacked the gate of the institute and instead, they protected it from ‘aggressors’, who belonged to other educational institutions.

The counsel argued that the trial of the case had yet to commence and that it would be in the interest of justice and in line with judgements of the superior courts that the FIR be quashed before the trial began, to protect the students from being vexed any further.

In the FIR, the complainant alleged that 18 students in question along with 80-90 others had blocked the main road outside the institute from 1pm to 6pm and held the management hostage.

It added that the protesters also issued threats to members of the institute’s management.

During hearing, Justice Roohul Amin observed that the lodging of FIR against students by the institute was unfortunate as it, instead of facilitating the success of its students, was creating obstacles for them by registering an FIR against them.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2022