Warrants for Imran, Qadri: Police fail to execute orders (Islamabad city)

Court told Imran, Qadri were not at their homes when police went to arrest them.

ISLAMABAD: The police informed an anti-terrorism court (ATC) that execution of the arrest warrants issued against the chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Imran Khan, and the chief of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek, Dr Tahirul Qadri, could not take place as they were not present at their residence.

The additional SHO of the Secretariat Police Station, Inspector Muhammad Yaseen Bhutta, submitted the report before the ATC in connection with a case against Khan and Qadri for their alleged involvement in an attack on the then Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Asmatullah Junejo during the 2014 sit-ins in the capital.

In the report, Bhutta said that a police party went to the residence of Khan in Bani Gala where a security guard informed them that neither Khan was at home nor he knew where he was.

Subsequently, the inspector said, the warrants of arrest could not be executed.

The court officials confirmed that a similar report had been submitted in connection with the execution of Qadri’s arrest warrants.

Bhutta submitted the report before the duty judge, Syed Kausar Abbas Zaidi, as the judge conducting proceedings of the case was on leave.

Following the submission of the report, the court adjourned the case till July 25.

At the previous hearing, the ATC-II judge, Sohail Ikram, had issued warrants for Khan and Qadri with directions to the police to produce them before the court on June 20.

Moreover, the court had directed the SDPO to get execution of warrants and in case of non-execution; he shall personally appear before the court.

The SSP was brutally beaten up at the hands of protesters on the Constitution Avenue.

The incident took place on September 1, 2014, less than 24 hours after his first day on the job as the SSP (Operations) of the capital police.

The Secretariat police had registered the case against several PTI and PAT workers for their alleged involvement in vandalism and attacking SSP Junejo.

The FIR was registered on the complaint of Sajjad Ahmed.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2016.