Lahore:
Friday, an anti -terrorism court (ATC) rejected Friday the pleads of release under bond of three main PTI – Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Umar Sarftaz Cheema and Mian Mehmood Resheed – in a Radiation screen case on May 9, 2023.
ATC judge Manzar Ali Gul made a decision after hearing the arguments on both sides. The case concerned the criminal fire and the riots before the Rahat de Lahore bakery and was recorded by the Sarwar Road police station.
Qureshi is vice-president of the PTI while Cheema and Rasheed were respectively governor of Punjab and provincial minister during the reign of the PTI.
Meanwhile, an Islamabad court of first instance reserved its decision on a plea filed by Shah Mahmood Qureshi requesting a acquittal in another case of May 9. The judicial magistrate Shehzad Khan heard the case at the Islamabad district and the sessions court.
During the procedure, Qureshi’s lawyer Ali Bukhari appeared in court and argued that several co-accused had already been acquitted in the same case. He stressed that on March 8, 2025, the court had acquired other persons involved in the case.
Bukhari argued that Qureshi was accused of having acted on a video message from the founder of PTI, Imran Khan, which would have led to acts of vandalism. He asked the court to reject the accusations against his client for reasons similar to those who previously acquitted.
Following the arguments, the court reserved its decision on the acquittal advocacy of Qureshi. The case was initially registered at the Tarnol police station.
In addition, the hearing of another case linked to the Haqeeqi Azadi march, involving the founder and the PTI party workers, could not proceed due to the unavailability of Imran Khan who was detained in the Adiala de Rawalpindi prison since September 2023.
The court marked the presence of the other accused and postponed the procedure without other developments. The lawyer Masrof Khan appeared on behalf of PTI workers at the hearing.
