Lahore:
An anti -terrorism court (ATC) in Faisalabad sentenced 59 people on Monday, including the leaders of the PTI Omar Ayub, Shibli Faraz and Zartaj Gul – at 10 years in prison in another case of May 9.
Out of 109 accused, ATC Judge Javed Iqbal Sheikh also sentenced 16 accused to an imprisonment of 3 years for having attacked the residence of chief PML-N Rana Sanaullah, who also belongs to Faisalabad.
Judge Sheikh also ordered the confiscation of the properties of 42 supporters and workers of the PTI.
The court, however, paid 34 accused, including former Minister of Information Fawad Chaudhry and Pti Mna Zain Qureshi after the prosecution did not establish their involvement in the abovementioned accusations.
The case was part of a series of trials relating to the violent protests which broke out after the first arrest of the former Prime Minister Imran Khan of the premises of the High Court of Islamabad (CIH) on May 9, 2023.
Earlier, on July 31, an ATC in Faisalabad sentenced the best PTI leaders, notably Omar Ayub, Shibli Faraz, Zartaj Gul, Mna Sahibzada Hamid Raza and former Mna Sheikh Rashid Shafiq at ten years in prison in another case on May 9.
In his verdict issued on Monday, the ATC judge observed that a culture of nihilism was intentionally promoted with a “soline approach” and that the workers were made to believe that they alone are laudable and that all the others are condemnable.
“Aside from them, no one else has politics and ethically valid and other political factions do not even exist, as they are, the unique reality with a claim of self,” he said, said, said, said, said, said
He said that with such a kind of political training, all that was destructive could be achieved as fateful events of May 9, which, he said, violated all the established political norms, universally accepted, by all the civilized nations of the world.
“This is not a case of FIR of a single event, but this is the case of a conspiracy to create violent events throughout the country in the event of arrest of the president of the PTI Imran Ahmad Khan Niazi and it is quite possible that a conspiracy of such a magnitude can lead to many occurrences, when they are planned and organized by a political party with a large number of consequences.”
Earlier, the defense councils arose that only three asspiration of the alleged conspiracy had hatched at the Rose hotel in the Chakri region in Rawalpindi and the residence of Zaman Park of Imran Khan.
They said that the participation of witnesses – Ammat Kamal, Hassam Afzal and Muhamad Khalid, all the police – in two alleged meetings was very doubtful by their own disclosure.
They said that the ASMAT Kamal witness admitted that the local management was known to him before the alleged meeting at Rose Hotel for its longer service period in Rawalpindi.
In addition, he could not produce a report from his arrival and his departure at the Chakri police station.
Likewise, witnesses to Zaman Park’s meeting admitted that the premises of Imran’s residence were guarded by a heavy deployment of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police and there were so many control points where the identity of each participant was examined carefully.
Consequently, their presence instead of the meeting was not established at all.
They argued that witnesses of the accusation are in variance on so many points concerning the participation of the accused in an alleged occurrence and the role of the accused.
On Monday, judge Sheikh also issued arrest warrants for 75 convicts, including Omar Ayub, Shibli Faraz, Zartaj Gul and others because of their absence in the courtroom.
He ordered the CPO of Faisalabad to present them in court so that they could be sent to prison to undergo their sentences pronounced on August 25.
According to the judgments announced by various ATCs in the affairs of May 9, entire properties were confiscated by more than 160 convicts, including the former governor of Punjab, Umar Sarfraz Cheema, Dr. Yasmin Rashid, Ejaz Chaudhry and Mehmood Rasheed.
The properties were confiscated under article 7 (2) of the 1997 anti-terrorism law.
On May 9, 2023, legislators and supporters of the PTI attacked military facilities across Pakistan following Imran’s arrest by paramilitary rangers.
Later, the government launched a heavy repression against the former ruling party while recording FIR against thousands of people, including the founder of PTI, Imran Khan.
More than 100 workers and supporters of the PTI were also given to the military authorities for their trial before the military courts.
