An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Thursday suspended the non-bailable arrest warrants for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur in connection with a case registered in Hassan Abdal.
The suspension followed a petition filed by Gandapur's lawyer, Muhammad Faisal Malik, Express News reported.
The case involves charges of arson and vandalism. In his petition, Malik argued that the Peshawar High Court (PHC) had already granted bail to Gandapur in all related cases.
In response, the court decided to suspend the arrest warrants and canceled the proceedings to declare Ali Amin Gandapur a proclaimed offender.
Earlier in December, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in the garrison city indicted another group of 14 PTI leaders including Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi and K-P CM Ali Amin Gandapur in a case related to alleged attack by PTI works on the GHQ on May 9, 2023.
The ATC presided over by Judge Syed Amjad Ali Shah conducted a hearing of the case in a courtroom inside Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail where PTI founder Imran Khan is also detained.
Authorities registered a case under terrorism charges against PTI leaders and workers at Police Station RA Bazaar in the wake of the acts of vandalism carried out by alleged PTI workers following Imran Khan's arrest from the premises of Islamabad High Court (IHC) in connection with a corruption case last year.
The charges were framed against Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Gandapur, Shibli Faraz, Shehryar Afridi, Kanwal Shauzab, Shabbir Awan, Latasab Satti, Umar Tanveer Butt, Taimur Masood, Saad Ali Khan, Sikandar Zaib, Zohaib Afridi, Fahad Masood, and Raja Nasser Mahfuz. All the accused pleaded not guilty.
The court canceled the arrest warrants of CM Gandapur upon his appearance. So far, a total of 113 individuals, including Imran, Omar Ayub and Shibli Faraz have been indicted in the case.
During the hearing, Imran's petition citing insufficient evidence for the indictment was preliminarily heard, and further proceedings on this will take place today. Ali Amin Gandapur appointed Ghulam Hasnain Sanbal Advocate as his pleader for 12 related cases.
In the GHQ attack case, 21 accused submitted miscellaneous applications, including requests for permission to perform Umrah by four individuals: Muhammad Javed, Muhammad Ahmed Chattha, Rai Hassan Nawaz, and Umar Naveed Satti.
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