KARACHI: A provincial law officer on Thursday informed the Sindh High Court (SHC) that only one FIR had been registered against former president Dr Arif Alvi in Sindh, which was categorised as “A-Class”. At the last hearing, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) submitted that no FIR had been registered against the petitioner, while police sought time to file a similar report. On Thursday, when a two-judge constitutional bench of the SHC headed by Justice Muhammad Karim Khan Agha took up the matter for hearing, a provincial law officer filed a report on behalf of inspector general Sindh and stated that, as per the report, only one old case was registered in Karachi against the petitioner in 2018, which had been categorised as “A-Class”. The “A Class” FIR is a true FIR, but the accused are untraced. According to the report, on direction of the SHC, the IGP had sought rep­orts from the DIGs East, West, CIA and Counter Terrorism Department Sindh, DIGs of Sukkur, Shaheed Benazirabad, Mirpurkhas, Larkana, and Hyderabad Rangers, which revealed that no case or FIR had been registered against the petitioner. However, it added, the DIG South Zone, in his report informed that one case had been registered on January 4, 2018, against the former president with FIR no. 1/2018, which had been categorised as “A” class. It was registered at the Civil Line police station under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 337-A (punishment of shajjah) and 337-F (punishment of ghayr-jaifah) of the Pakistan Penal Code. The report asked the court to dismiss the petition, in the interest of justice. After examining the report and hearing the provincial law officer, the court disposed of the petition as it served the purpose. In its order, the court stated: “Addl. prosecutor general Sindh on behalf of the inspector general of police Sindh has filed a compliance report, which is taken on record, wherein it is stated that there is no current FIR registered against the petitioner and only one old FIR dated 04.01.2018 which has been disposed of in A-Class.” Earlier, Mr Alvi moved the SHC and asked the court to declare illegal any move on the part of the provincial government to arrest or prosecute him and to restrain the provincial authorities from detaining him or filing FIRs against him as well as sought directives for respondents to produce the record about cases registered against him. On Dec 4, the SHC had granted 20-day protective bail to Mr Alvi, asking him to surrender before trial courts in three cases registered in Punjab. The petitioner submitted before the court that despite peaceful protests on November 24, cases had been registered against him and his party members in various cities under serious provisions, including the Anti-Terrorism Act. “According to the information, cases have been registered against Arif Alvi in Mianwali, Taxila and Rawalpindi,” his lawyer, Barrister Ali Tahir, submitted in the petition. “Cases are being registered against him to bring him under political pressure. “The Sindh Police should be stopped from arresting the petitioner,” the petition said, adding that Mr Alvi’s name should also be stopped from being included in undisclosed FIRs. The petition also requested that the court declare that “illegally arresting and prosecuting the petitioner by and on behalf of the Government of Sindh” was “totally illegal and violative of fundamental rights” of the petitioner.