ISLAMABAD: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Thursday reserved its verdict on applications of federal ministers Asad Umar, Pervaiz Khattak and Shafqat Mehmood seeking acquittal in the 2014 Parliament House and PTV attack case.
The court will pronounce the verdict on March 9. Shafqat Mahmood, Asad Umar, Ijaz Chaudhry, Raja Khurram Nawaz and other accused turned up before Judge Muhammad Ali Warraich as he resumed hearing.
As many as 11 accused, including the federal ministers and disgruntled PTI leader Jahangir Khan Tareen, moved the applications seeking their acquittal under Section 265-K of the criminal procedure code.
During the hearing, the defendants’ lawyer filed the acquittal pleas and stated that the police had withdrawn charges against former premier Nawaz Sharif in the case.
“More than a year-and-a-half has passed since the court passed an acquittal order for prime accused Imran Khan, while the co-accused are still on bail,” the lawyer maintained, adding that they should also be acquitted.
The public prosecutor said that the prosecution had no objection in acquitting the accused. Following this, the ATC reserved its judgment on the acquittal petitions.
It is noteworthy that Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was also named in the case, was acquitted by the anti-terrorism court in October 2020.
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On Sept 1, 2014, hundreds of protesters belonging to the PTI and PAT stormed the Parliament House and PTV headquarters and forced its staff to take two of the state broadcaster’s flagship channels — PTV News and PTV World — off the air.
The protesters were also charged with attacking government properties including the Parliament House building. Later, army troops had cleared the buildings and transmission was restored.
The FIR was registered on a complaint by Secretariat SHO Inspector Mehboob Ahmed. In his application, the complainant said that the protesters attacked the government building after snatching weapons from policemen.
