ISLAMABAD: The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC), on Tuesday, handed over six Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders to police on eight-day physical remand in different cases registered against them after PTI’s September 8th public gathering.

However, the ATC rejected the police request seeking a 15-day physical remand of PTI’s leader Shoaib Shaheen and sent him to jail on judicial remand who is also nominated by police in the same cases.

The ATC judge, while announcing its reserved judgment, granted police eight days’ remand of PTI leaders including four MNAs, Sher Afzal Marwat, Zain Qureshi, Aamir Dogar, Naseem Shah, Sheikh Wakas and Muhamad Ahmed Chatta, to the police.

ATC judge, Hasnat Muhammad Zulqarnain, while announcing its reserved judgment, sent Shaheen to jail on 14-day judicial remand.

Earlier, police produced PTI leader Shoaib Shaheen before ATC judge Hasnat Muhammad Zulqarnain for obtaining his physical remand.

At the start of the hearing, the judge asked the prosecutor what you wanted to recover from the accused, Shaheen. Police also produced other arrested PTI leaders including Sher Afzal Marwat, Aamir Dogar, Zain Qureshi, Naseem Shah, and Ahmed Chatta before the ATC judge for obtaining their physical remand.

During the hearing, the prosecutor, Javed Rana, read out the first information report (FIR) registered against Shaheen and others.

Quoting the FIR, he said the PTI workers at the behest of their leaders attacked the police. The PTI workers snatched anti-riot kits from the police, he said, adding that a terrorism case has been registered against the accused.

Police can obtain physical remand of 90 days of the accused in this case, he said.

The prosecutor requested the court to grant a 15-day physical remand of Shaheen.

The judge asked when and till what time the public gathering continued.

The time of the public gathering according to the NOC was from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm.

The PTI continued jalsa even after 7pm and the police made utmost efforts to maintain law and order, he said, adding that explosives had been recovered from the site of jalsa. He said PTI leadership had spread violence.

Ali Azad, president of the Islamabad High Court Bar Association, while arguing before the court, said that the time for ending the jalsa was 7pm while the time of the happing of the incident written in FIR was 6pm. It was written in FIR that Shaheen was a dacoit, he said.

He said Shaheen was the president of the Islamabad Bar Association, a Supreme Court lawyer and a member of a large political party. They accused that both Shaheen and Aamir Mughar incited workers but Shaheen was not present at the site.

Azad said what kind of investigation they were conducting on Shaheen, did they wanted to “recover the atomic bomb” from him.

He requested the court to discharge Shaheen from the case. There is no case registered against his client in the past, he said. He produced CCTV footage of Shaheen before the court.

The prosecutor told the court that nothing was recovered from Shaheen but PTI workers attacked police at his behest.

The defence counsel said that no one knew where Shaheen was kept after his arrest as we were not allowed to enter any police station.

The judge asked “what is the exact location of the public gathering. What is the distance between Sangjani and site of jalsa?” What was the objective of the PTI workers to go to Chungi No 26, the judge further asked?

The defence counsel told the court that the total distance between the jasla site and Chungi No 26 is eight kilometres.

The court, after hearing the arguments, reserved verdict on granting Shaheen physical remand.

Marwat, while arguing before the court, said that “we are parliamentarians and we are representatives of millions of people. Police broke into the Parliament House in the early morning and arrested the parliamentarians,” he said, adding that now he came to know that Barrister Gohar has been discharged from the same case in which police have arrested him. “What is the unique thing that police released him and produced us before you,” he said.

The judge told Marwat that Barrister Gohar did not had a Kalashnikov rifle and you had it. “I have a pistol and you made it a Kalashnikov [rifle],” he said, adding that grant remand as much as your power. The court reserved its judgment after hearing Marwat’s arguments.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024