Over 40 lawyers sent on judicial remand

An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Thursday sent to jail over 40 lawyers on judicial remand facing charges of attacking Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC).

The court also directed the Investigating Officer (IO) to get the accused persons medically examined before sending them to jail. It allowed the IO to hold identification parade within six days. The police produced the arrested the lawyers before the court under strict security with covered faces. Shadman police had lodged two FIRs against over 250 lawyers. Some women lawyers arrested from the scene were released by the police.

The FIRs were registered under sections 148, 186, 290, 291, 324, 353 and 436 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) in addition to section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. The investigating officer submitted record of the cases before the court and sought physical remand of the lawyers. Ghulam Mustafa advocate representing the lawyers opposed the remand.

He also asked the court to order medical examination of the lawyers as they had been tortured in the police custody. ATC Judge Abdul Qayyum Khan observed that although the accused were nominated in the FIRs but no specific role had been attributed to them. He said it had not been mentioned in the FIRs that as to who was actually having any weapon of offence. "Hence, there is no justification to grant physical remand of the above-said accused. Request of the Investigating Officer is turned down," the judge held in the order.

The accused include Adnan Bhatti, Basharat Abbas, Sajjad Rasheed, Muhammad Imran, Muhammad Azeem, Syed Zeeshan Ali, Mudassar Rasheed, Malik Muhammad Arshad, Junaid Arshad, Rana Islam, Muhammad Asad Suleman, Imran Naeem, Arshad Walayat, Ali Imran, Hassan Mirza, Hafiz Umair, Faheem Shaukat, Sheikh Irfan, Ali Bin Khalid, Asad Zafar, Malik Farooq, Hafiz Tanveer, Dilawar, Ghayas Ahmad, Arsalan Raza, Turab Warraich, Mattiur Rehman, Rana Kausar, Sajid Hussain, Maqsood Ahmad, Hassan Ali, Hafiz Muhammad Shakil, Tayyab Rasool, Ali Raza, Umar Ghaffar, Waqas Ali, Fahad Sultan, Muhammad Shahbaz, Shehroze, Rana Muhammad Aslam and Asad Salman.