PIC attack: govt challenges lawyers’ bail

Petition maintains trial court granted relief in haste

LAHORE: The Punjab government challenged in the Lahore High Court (LHC) the Anti-Terrorism Court’s (ATC) verdict under which pre-arrest bails were confirmed of eight accused lawyers including the nephew of the prime minister in the case of an attack on Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC).

Three patients had died during the mayhem in which the lawyers had destroyed emergency ward equipment and damaged vehicles.

The provincial government filed a petition through the prosecutor general, seeking cancellation of bails of the accused and contending that the PIC attack was a planned incident. The petition maintained that the accused wanted to interfere in the hospital’s affairs and to restrain doctors from rendering their services. The trial court granted them bails in haste without applying its judicial mind, the government con contended in its petition.

During the chaos, three patients had died after their oxygen masks were removed by the attackers, the government added in the petition. It alleged that the accused were also involved in damaging the hospital property as well as equipment.

The petition said the accused were recognised with the help of video clips recorded while the occurrence. They also set ablaze a police vehicle and injured several people.

The trial court has to see the tentative assessment but it appreciated evidence which prejudiced the case of the prosecution, it said.

The government contended before the court that the impugned order of January 22 is not based on cogent reasons. The accused were armed with guns and batons while attacking the PIC, which created an alarming situation, it said.