One good and one bad news came out for PTI
ISLAMABAD: A day before the Supreme Court granted unprecedented political power to the PTI in the national and provincial assemblies, the Lahore Anti-Terrorism Court in its verdict on behalf of the government and the army, Imran Khan and his party PTI. It has supported the allegations of May 9 conspiracy and war against the state against the top leadership of IS.
If Friday's development is considered a major political victory for the PTI and its top leadership, then the verdict delivered by the Lahore court on Thursday is a major setback for Imran Khan and his party.
Lahore's anti-terrorism court has become the first judicial forum to uphold that Imran Khan and senior PTI leaders hatched an anti-state conspiracy on May 9.
Rejecting Imran Khan's pre-arrest bail plea in the May 9 case, Anti-Terrorism Court First Lahore Judge Khalid Arshad upheld the prosecution's view that Imran Khan had killed senior PTI leadership and protesters/accused. prepared the alleged criminal conspiracy along with them, executed it and all of them aimed to wage war against the state.
The court was not convinced by Imran Khan's allegation that he was being targeted on political grounds. In its four-page judgment, the court, while rejecting Imran Khan's bail plea, wrote that the allegation of political vendetta by the petitioner (Imran Khan) against the official complainant is an alleged malpractice and an undercover person has Can't be convinced.
A peaceful protester becomes a terrorist when he commits a criminal conspiracy, propagates it, and in concert with other [armed] persons for a common purpose damages or attempts to damage public property. Kray, as was done with Jinnah House, is a move under Section 6 of the Anti-Terrorism Act intended to jam the government machinery.
Thus the person loses his rights as a normal law-abiding citizen. The investigation should not be obstructed as it would prevent the prosecution from gathering evidence. An unusual waiver of pre-arrest bail is for an innocent person and not for a petitioner who, along with senior PTI leadership and protesters/accused, carried out an alleged criminal conspiracy by waging war against the state to overthrow the government. .
Regarding the evidence, the court decision said that the statements of two prosecution witnesses (PWs) under Section 161 of the Criminal Code include that the petitioner (Imran Khan) on May 7, 2023, from 5:30 to 6:00 p.m. Met with senior party leaders at Zaman Park between 12:00 and 17:00.
Instructed 15 PTI leaders to face arrest on May 9 in Islamabad. Upon his arrest, you all will gather PTI workers under the leadership of Dr. Yasmin Rashid and attack military installations, government properties and police personnel to pressurize the government and armed forces for his release. To which they (the co-accused) replied that he [Imran Khan] is their red line and they will incite the PTI workers to jam the government.
Further, the petitioner sent a video message while leaving Islamabad on May 9 that if he was arrested, the situation of the country would become like Sri Lanka and this video clip was presented by the prosecution along with the transcript.
Another video clip of the petitioner was also circulated on social media on May 9 through PTI's official Twitter account throughout the day to incite PTI workers to come out for protest and call the move "real freedom". "Real Jihad for real freedom".
In fact, the case of the prosecution against the petitioner is that he hatched the alleged criminal conspiracy which was connived at by the top leadership (accused) and with the help of advanced devices online it was conveyed to the protestors/accused who attacked the alleged incitement. . With the intention of terrorizing the government, waging war against the state, they forcibly entered Jinnah House and set it on fire.
In his conclusion, the judge has also referred to the reports of PEMRA, FIA Cyber Crime Wing and Internal Security.
Imran Khan's lawyer argued that the petitioner was arrested when he wanted to appear before the Islamabad High Court and this arrest was declared illegal by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in August.
The lawyer added that the petitioner condemned the protest by PTI workers and distanced himself from the alleged incidents of violence.
He told the court that more than 200 false cases have been registered against him and that he is being subjected to political vendetta when he was ousted from the corridors of power. Imran Khan's counsel also told the court that the three prosecution witnesses (PWs) who claimed to have heard conversations regarding the alleged conspiracy on May 1, 2023 at Chakri and on May 7 and May 9 at Zaman Park, He did not disclose it to his superiors, no action was demanded, his name does not appear anywhere in the FIR, which means that he was present at the alleged place of occurrence at the relevant time. did not claim
Finally, the counsel argued that the petitioner (Imran Khan) was allegedly not personally present at the place of occurrence and social media