ISLAMABAD: The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC), on Tuesday, granted bail to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary Information Raoof Hasan in a terrorism case.
ATC judge, Tahir Abbas Supra, while hearing the case, approved Hasan’s bail against the surety bonds of Rs200,000 in a case registered against him and others by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of the city police.
Ali Bukhari and Al Zafer, Hasan’s lawyers as well as prosecutor Javed Rana appeared before the court.
At the start of the hearing, the judge asked the prosecutor to make it clear whether he was presenting the record or not. To this, the prosecutor said “the provision of a record in the court is not his responsibility.”
“The investigation officer (IO) presents the record before the court,” he said.
The judge told Bukhari “let’s wait for some time.”
The court took a short break till the arrival of Hasan’s case record.
Bukhari started arguments after the court resumed hearing following the break.
He told the court that it was important to see the status of his client in that case.
“My client was arrested on July 22 in another case from PTI’s Secretariat,” he said, adding that on July 30 Hasan was arrested in a terrorism case.
He said Hasan was not nominated in the case.
“The allegation against my client is financing explosive material,” he said, adding Hasan was not arrested along with explosive material or at the crime scene. He said PTI’s Secretary Information was nominated in the case without evidence.
The defence counsel said the court did not decide on bail application based on the police investigation. “The CTD has yet not submitted the challan before the court in this case. Hasan is the spokesman of PTI, due to which, he was arrested,” he said, adding “there is no evidence against his client to link him with the crime.”
He further argued that “the statement of Ahmed Waqas Janjua, PTI’s international media coordinator, who is also arrested by the CTD in this case, is not before us but the CTD arrested Hasan because of Janjua’s statement.” There was no justification to keep Hasan in jail, he said.
Hasan’s lawyer said that Hasan had not been nominated in any case in the past. “My client was nominated by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in a case and the court granted him bail,” he said, adding that first, the FIA registered a case against Hasan for misuse of social media and then he was nominated in a terrorism case.
Prosecutor Javed Rana, while arguing before the court, said the CTD arrested Hasan immediately after the statement of Janjua.
During the investigation, the police came to know that Hasan had provided money for purchasing explosive material, he said, adding Hasan had been charged with non-bailable sections.
He said the court had already rejected the post-arrest bail of Janjua.
He requested the court reject Hasan’s bail application.
The judge asked the prosecutor “has money recovered from the possession of Janjua or Hasan?”
“Money has been recovered from Janjua which had been paid by Hasan,” he said.
“Were the police arrested the third accused?” the judge asked. The IO told the court that so far, the third accused has not been arrested. The judge while smiling remarked that “yet you have not found ‘Khan’.”
The court after hearing granted bail to PTI’s secretary information.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
Comments
Comments are closed.