Pindi declines governor's plea to drop terror case

The Rawalpindi division administration on Tuesday turned down the request of Punjab Governor Sardar Saleem Haider to withdraw a terrorism case against 100 leaders and workers, citizens and traders of all political parties.

Former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is also nominated in the case which involved a protest against a demolition operation and implementation of Section 4 on the Murree Expressway under the Murree New Master Plan.

The administration made it clear to the negotiating Grand Jirga representatives that the case would stay and the law would make its own way in this regard.

All negotiations and meetings have failed in this regard, after which the leaders and workers of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Jamaiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), who were nominated in the case, have started seeking interim bails from the special Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC), Rawalpindi.

In the first phase, the interim bails of 13 political activists including Muhammad Kamran and Qamar Zaman. was approved. Judge Amjad Ali Shah extended the interim bail till January 18, issued a notice to the SHO of the Murree police station and sought a written reply and records.

Asif Satti from the PPP, who is accused in the case, said that their talks with the Rawalpindi Commissioner and the police failed and now they have decided to fight the case. "We are going to have a Grand Jirga again. Murree is our native place. No one will be allowed to encroach upon in the name of a master plan here. We will protest again."

All political parties and businessmen, Satti added, were united against the running of bulldozers on the Murree Expressway, implementing section 4 and selling off government schools in Murree and Kotli Sattian.