![](https://nextpakistan.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/62a314a58cae5.jpg)
- May 21, 2024
- Kainat Shakeel
- 0
ISLAMABAD: Monday, almost two years after the cases were filed, a local court cleared former prime minister Imran Khan and other Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leaders of charges of violence, rioting, impeding public service, and causing mischief by fire or explosive material with the intent to cause damage during the May 25 Azadi March. Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Qasim Suri, Zartaj Gul, Ali Nawaz Awan, Faisal Javed, Shireen Mazari, Saifullah Niazi, Asad Umar, and Sheikh Rashid, the chairman of the Awami Muslim League, were all cleared in addition to the former premier.
The findings in the cases filed at the Karachi Company and Kohsar police stations in 2022 were announced by judicial magistrates Shahzad Khan and Mureed Abbas, who had reserved them following arguments. Imran Khan, Mr. Qureshi, Ms. Mazari, Mr. Niazi, Mr. Umar, Ms. Gul, Mr. Awan, and Mr. Javed were all arrested by the Karachi Company police on charges of abetment (Section 109), rioting while carrying a deadly weapon (Section 148), unlawful assembly (Section 149), obstructing public service (Section 186), disobedience (Section 188), assault on a public servant (Section 353), and mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to cause damage (Sections 427- 435).
On May 26, at 1.50 am, a similar First Information Report (FIR) was filed at the Kohsar police station against Mr. Khan, Mr. Qureshi, Mr. Rashid, Mr. Awan, and Mr. Suri in response to a complaint made by Sub-Inspector (SI) Asif Raza. Naeem Panjotha, the PTI’s attorney, contended that the matter could not move further since the FIR had been submitted by an “unauthorized person” and that the only person with the ability to make a complaint was the one who had imposed Section 144 during the hearing before Judge Abbas. Furthermore, the attorney maintained that the former prime could not be the subject of any video evidence in this case. The PTI founder’s defense attorney asked the court to clear him because the accusations against him lacked merit. Additionally, he told the court that Imran Khan was the target of politically driven lawsuits.
He maintained that there were no protesters who set fire to trees, and that the PTI demonstration was nonviolent. He believed that police bombardment had caused the trees to catch fire. He asked the court to acquit the PTI founding chairman and the other defendants with honor. Before Imran Khan’s May 25, 2022, March for “Haqeeqi Azadi” (genuine freedom), the government invoked Section 144, a law designed to restrict public assemblies. Major thoroughfares were blocked from traffic by the placement of shipping containers. Police attempted to disperse the protesters, who were unfazed by the measures, by using tear gas as they forced their way past the containers in an attempt to reach Islamabad. Baton-wielding policemen also charged at them.