Lahore:
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) rejected petitions on a provisional surety of the senior PTI Omar Ayub in three separate cases relating to the riots of May 9 on Saturday.
The cases involve alleged attacks on military installations – including the Jinnah house in Lahore and the Askari tower – during country riots throughout the country, triggered by the arrest of the PTI founder, Imran Khan, on May 9, 2023.
The ATC judge, Manzar Ali Gul, hearing the petitions, rejected the arguments due to the repeated absence of Omar of the legal proceedings. The judge also refused his request for an exemption from one day of the appearance.
Omar had previously obtained a provisional deposit in cases on the state of regular attendance. However, on July 31, an ATC in Faisalabad pronounced prison terms of up to 10 years to several PTI leaders, notably Omar Ayub, Shibli Faraz, Zartaj Gul and Sahibzada Hamid Raza, in other cases linked to May 9.
Following their condemnations, the National Assembly won Omar on Friday as the head of the opposition. Zartaj Gul was also stripped of his position as PTI parliamentary chief, while Hmad Chattha was deleted as deputy parliamentary chief.
Meanwhile, Zartaj Gul posted an appeal before the High Court of Lahore (LHC) contesting his condemnation by ATC. The call – deposited through his lawyer lawyer Ali Zafar and Muhammad Hussain – will be taken up by a division bench on Monday.
The petition maintains that Zartaj was neither appointed in the FIR nor found physically present on the scene and that his inclusion via an additional declaration was unjustified. This, he maintains, raises serious doubts about the authenticity of allegations, which have not been taken into account at the trial.
He also claims that the “contested judgment” was adopted “in a hasty and slipshod” manner on the basis of three prosecution witnesses, who admitted in counter-examination that they had not appointed it, but it was condemned and inflicted a severe sentence.
In a related development, ATC in Lahore should announce its verdict tomorrow (August 11) in two other cases of May 9 concerning vandalism outside of Rahat Bakery and the Shadman police station. The court had reserved its decision earlier this week after concluding the procedure in Kot Lakhpat prison.
