Mazari among nine indicted in May 9 case

RAWALPINDI:

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Monday indicted nine accused, including former federal minister Shireen Mazari, and deferred the indictment of another former minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and two other accused in a case over violence on May 9, 2023.

ATC judge Amjad Ali Shah heard the May 9 case inside the Adiala Jail. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan attended the hearing, while Qureshi was brought in the court from the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore.

The other eight accused indicted in the case were Raja Rashid Hafeez, Khadim Hussain, Zakirullah, Azeemullah Khan, Tahir Sadiq, Mehr Muhammad Javed, Chaudhry Asif and Munir. During the proceedings, all the accused denied the charges against them.

Three accused, Qureshi, Col (retd) Ajmal Sabir Raja and Sikandar Zeb, refused to sign the charge sheet, saying that their application was pending in court, which should be heard before the indictment. Consequently, the court postponed their indictment.

Prosecutor Zaheer Shah filed an application for the cancellation of bail of 23 accused, including Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and Opposition Leader in Senate Shibli Faraz, for skipping the hearing.

Other accused were Kanwal Shozab, Taimur Masood, Saad Ali, Zohaib Afridi, Omar Butt, Zakirullah, Muhammad Asim, Sikandar Mirza, Tahir Sadiq, Azeemullah Khan, Muhammad Latasib Satti, Zain Qureshi, Fahad Masood, Shahbaz Ahmed, Chaudhry Asif Ali, Shabbir Awan, Mehr Javed, Nasir Mahfouz, Raja Rashid Hafeez and Chaudhry Bilal.

Consequently the court issued notices to all the accused. Later the hearing was adjourned till December 19. On the occasion, the PTI founder met with party workers and lawyers including Sheikh Rasheed, Fawad Chaudhry, Dr Babar Awan, Raja Basharat, Col Ajmal Sabir, but he did not speak with the media.

Meanwhile, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Islamabad on Monday dismissed the cases against 102 accused arrested over the November 26 PTI protest, and remanded the other accused to police custody.

ATC Judge Tahir Abbas Supra heard various cases against the arrested accused. In the first hearing, the Karachi Company police presented 95 accused arrested in two cases before the judge. The court discharged nine accused while approved two-day remand of the three.

In another case, the court discharged eight accused and remanded 75 others to police custody for three days. The court sought report from the police when it was pointed out that the four accused were underage.

In the case involving the overrunning and crushing of three Rangers personnel during the protest, Judge Sapra granted a seven-day physical remand of the accused, Hashim Abbasi, to the police.

Earlier, the Ramna police had requested a 30-day remand for the accused, but the judge approved only a seven-day physical remand.