ISLAMABAD: The top court of the country on Thursday acquitted Ammad Yousaf, the president of a private television channel, in a sedition case and terminated actions against him.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Ijazul Ahsan announced the verdict after hearing arguments from both sides.

Justice Shahid Waheed, a member of the bench, questioned: if the Interior Ministry had given approval to lodge a case against the accused.

Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail asked the prosecution “what evidence it had against the accused.”

Latif Khan Khosa, the counsel for Yousaf, said that secretary Interior had given approval to city magistrate for lodging a case against Shehbaz Gill, a leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), who is now in the US, adding the name of his client was included later.

To a question by the bench, the special prosecutor said that they had a transcript which was recovered from the under-construction farmhouse of Ammad Yousaf.

Justice Ahsan asked “under what grounds, the case was registered against the petitioner,” adding “The prosecution was not giving answers to the questions of the bench.”

The special prosecutor said that there was name of ARY television administration in the case. He admitted that they had no proof at the time of registration of the case against Yousaf.

Justice Ahsan asked that what was meaning of administration as head of channel, which comes under it, adding if there was no proof then how this case was registered.

Justice Mandokhail asked that how the conspiracy could be proved with a piece of paper. The court, subsequently, accepted the petition of Yousaf and acquitted him from the sedition case.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023