ATC grants bail to four PML-N leaders

Petitioners were booked over rally welcoming Sharif at airport

LAHORE:

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) has granted interim bail to four PML-N leaders, including former speaker of National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, in a case registered against party activists for participating in a rally to express solidarity with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif at Allama Iqbal International Airport in 2018.

The court granted bail to Sadiq, Khawaja Salman Rafique, Malik Muhammad Waheed and Rana Ahsan in the case registered against them by North Cantonment police under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

There were around 25 nominated accused, including former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, and 400 to 500 unidentified accused in the FIR.

Their counsel Syed Farhad Ali Shah argued that the petitioners were innocent and had nothing to do with the commission of the alleged offences mentioned in the FIR.

He further implored the court that the complainant had lodged the case to harass and pressure the petitioners. Shah added that the prosecution’s story as narrated in the FIR was baseless and concocted. After hearing the arguments, the court granted ad interim bail to the accused.

Several police stations had registered separate FIRs against PML-N leaders and workers on various charges, including a section of the Anti-Terrorism Act, for holding the rally on July 13, 2018 to express solidarity Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Captain (retd) Mohammed Safdar who were arriving from London after they were sentenced to imprisonment.

The rally was led by former chief minister Shehbaz Sharif. The caretaker authorities of Punjab registered the FIRs against the PML-N leaders, workers and supporters.

The petitioners had approached the ATC for getting bail in cases registered against them on charges of damaging public property, pelting stones, attacking police and removing barricades from roads during the rally. However, top party leaders, including Abbasi, Shehbaz and his son Hamza Shehbaz, did not seek bail.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2020.