Islamabad High Court wrapped up Azam Swati’s petition regarding consolidation on Friday, saying that it has no jurisdiction over cases in other provinces.

Chief Justice Aamer Farooq announced the decision, adding that if Swati wanted relief he should contact the authorities in the province where the FIRs have been registered.

Azam Swati has been in custody since November 27 and has since been moved from Islamabad to Balochistan to Sindh and back to Islamabad. Since all the cases pertain to his criticism of senior army officials, he had requested all cases to be consolidated and brought to Islamabad.

However, the court has now announced that it has no control over cases in Balochistan and Sindh. However, the court did observe that according to the precedent in the Sughran bibi case (Sughran Bibi v. The State (PLD 2018 SC 595)) multiple cases cannot be registered for the same crime.

The court also said that povinces could work together to build a mechanism where such problems could be avoided in the future. One such mechanism could be creating a link between police stations to make sure multiple FIRs are not registered for the same offence, the court said.