Police 'stops' PTI leaders from entering IHC

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders Asad Umar and Shah Mehmood Qureshi failed to get relief from the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for the May 9 riot cases as they were absent from the hearing on Thursday, allegedly due to the police preventing them from entering court premises.

IHC Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir heard the bail applications for the former federal ministers regarding the cases filed in the Tarnol police station for the May 9 protests.

Petitioners' lawyer Ali Bukhari said that the two leaders came to the high court at 7:30 am but police personnel prevented them from entering the court. He urged the court to watch the CCTV footage from the IHC gates.

The court adjourned the hearing and accepted the request of the lawyer to give time to Qureshi and Umar to appear till tomorrow.

The PTI leaders had moved the IHC after a local sessions court had rejected their bail pleas.

Earlier this week, Qureshi and Asad Umar fled court premises in a desperate attempt to avoid being arrested after a local court denied them bail in a case connected to May 9 violence.

Read PTI refutes Asad Umar's claim of ideological differences

After the PTI chief was arrested on May 9 over corruption charges, several protestors attacked sensitive state and military installations in retaliation.

Subsequently, several party leaders and workers were arrested and slapped with cases of inciting violence and spreading unrest.

Qureshi and Umar had emerged as two key leaders who had opted not to part ways with the party after their release from custody, unlike a major chunk of their former colleagues that have denounced their party memberships.

Nonetheless, following his release from jail last month, Umar stepped down from his role as PTI secretary general.

The two leaders appeared before Additional Sessions Judge, Tahir Abbas Supra, in connection with a case registered against them over arson and vandalism of state and public property.

As soon as the judge announced his verdict rejecting the two PTI leaders' bail applications, the two were seen escaping the court premises to avoid arrest.