ATC acquits Alvi in Parliament House attack case

President among 82 senior party leaders exonerated by court

ISLAMABAD:

An anti-terrorism court in Islamabad on Tuesday acquitted 82 people affiliated with the ruling party including President Dr Arif Alvi, federal ministers as well as other senior leaders in the case of the attack on the PTV building and Parliament House during a sit-in by the PTI in 2014.

Other PTI leaders who were acquitted included Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar, Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood, MNA Raja Khurram Nawaz, Senator Saifullah Niazi, Senator Ejaz Ahmed Chaudhry Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Labour and Culture Minister Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, Senator as well as estranged members of the party, Jahangir Tareen and Aleem Khan.

Judge Muhammad Ali Warraich of the ATC ruled on an application filed by President Alvi and acquittal pleas by other PTI leaders.

On March 9, the court had reserved its judgment in the case and had granted Alvi's request for revocation of immunity.

The court had previously acquitted Prime Minister Imran Khan in the case.

The prosecution did not object to the acquittal pleas.

On March 4, President Alvi refused to avail immunity in the case, as his lawyer and PTI leader, Babar Awan, urged the court to treat him as an “ordinary citizen”, saying that he did not want to avail the presidential immunity granted to him under Article 248 of the Constitution.

Alvi, through his counsel, had informed the judge that he could avail the presidential immunity but he would not do so as he believed “there should not be any inequality”.

“I appeared in court so that no one could say I skipped court proceedings,” he had added.

Alvi had further remarked that justice would continue to be delayed until everyone was deemed equal in the eyes of the law. He had also urged the judiciary to adjudicate cases at the earliest in order to provide justice to the people of Pakistan otherwise generations would keep contesting those cases.

On August 31, 2014, in an attempt to topple the then PML-N government, the PTI and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) workers had marched towards the Prime Minister House and the police were ordered to thwart their march. Subsequent clashes between the protesters and law enforcers resulted in the deaths of three PAT workers. Hundreds of others, including both demonstrators and policemen, were wounded.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan, PAT leader Tahirul Qadri and others along with hundreds of protesters had briefly seized and shut down the state broadcaster on September 1, 2014.

The protesters had stormed the PTV headquarters on Constitution Avenue and transmission of the PTV News and PTV World was cut off for almost 30 minutes. Later, army troops had cleared the buildings and transmission was restored.

An FIR was registered on a complaint by Secretariat SHO Inspector Mehboob Ahmed. In his application, the complainant had claimed that the protesters attacked the government building after snatching weapons from policemen.