ATC reserves verdict on bail pleas of PTI activists in November 26 protest cases

ISLAMABAD: The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Islamabad has reserved the verdict on bail please of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers, arrested in November 26 protests cases. ATC Judge Abul Hasanat Muhammad Zulqarnain heard the bail applications of 86 PTI workers.

The counsel of PTI activists, Ansar Kayani, told the court that none of the accused were nominated at first. He said that all accused were nominated after the identity parade, which itself was held five months after the event. “The entire procedure of identity parade was conducted in English,” Kayani said, raising the issue that whether the police official conducting the parade or the accused even understood the process. “There has been no recovery of any kind from the accused,” Kayani told the court.

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He argued that when PTI activists are released from Rawalpindi jail after remaining behind bars for five to six months, they are rearrested by Islamabad police. “The statements given in police custody have no importance. No role of any accused, no recovery, no evidence has been collected, so the accused should be given bail,” the counsel said, adding that some accused have already been granted bail in related cases.

PTI’s lawyer Sardar Muhammad Masroof Khan also appeared in the court and said that not a single accused was arrested by the police on the spot. “All [of them] were arrested from their homes. The bails granted to these accused were approved by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and the recovery in these FIRs has already been done earlier from Rawalpindi,” he said.

Prosecutor Raja Naveed Kayani said that the hearing now is being conducted after the arrest of the accused. “Higher courts have laid down the rules in this regard. “At this stage, we have to ascertain the specific cases with which the accused are associated. There is evidence that links the accused to the violent incidents.”

The prosecutor said that all accused were identified by witnesses during the identification parade. “The FIR is a First Information Report, it cannot be said that the accused were not nominated earlier,” he added.

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Prosecutor Kayani also said that the current case is of the bail plea. “The trial hearing will see if the identification parade was held in Pashto or Persian.” The prosecution requested the ATC to reject the bail application of the accused PTI activists.

Advocate Sardar Muhammad Masroof, Advocate Amna Ali, Zahid Bashir Dar, Ansar Kayani, Murtaza Turi, and Fatehullah Barki appeared in the court on behalf of PTI workers. The cases under consideration have been registered against PTI workers in Kohsar and Tarnol police stations.