Special court orders PTI leader’s release

Court ruled it was malafide to nominate the accused after two months

RAWALPINDI:

A special anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Rawalpindi on Monday ordered the release of Seemabia Tahir, a former provincial lawmaker of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) who was detained in connection with destruction and rioting at the office of an intelligence agency on May 9.

Earlier, her defence team told the judge that she had no connection to the case. It would be unwise to nominate her after two months, they told the court while calling her incarceration ‘political retaliation’ as her name was not mentioned in the first information reports (FIR).

The public prosecutor and the investigating officer, Akhtar Abbas, requested physical remand of the accused as well two others.

ATC judge Hamid Hussain ruled that Tahir’s nomination in the case was unlawful while ordering her release.

Meanwhile, two others – Shakir Hussain and Munsif Alam -- were sent on physical remand for seven days, with the authorities told to produce them in court at the next hearing.

The court ruled that it was malafide to nominate the accused after two months. This case was registered by the New Town police station. It also raised questions about the identification parade before ordering her release.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2023.