ATC grants bail to K-P chief minister

Khattak denies having role in 2014 sit-in violence

ISLAMABAD: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Wednesday granted interim bail to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s (K-P) Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and another PTI leader for the attack on the state-run television and the Parliament during the 2014 sit-in.

Khattak and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shaukat Yousafzai were granted bail against sureties of Rs100,000 each. They were directed to appear before the court on April 23 and 25, respectively.

After the hearing, Khattak told the media that when the headquarters of the Pakistan Television (PTV) was being vandalized during the 2014 sit-in in the capital, he was fast asleep and that he had a witness to prove it.

“I was asleep when the buildings came under attack,” he stated, adding that the PTI was not linked to any of those attacks.

He distanced himself from the violence during the sit-in and expressed ignorance about the case in which he had just appeared.

Instead, Khattak chose to talk about how his administration in K-P had improved the education and police system there.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2018.