MULTAN: A special anti-terrorism court on Saturday granted pre-arrest bail to 18 PML-N activists in a case lodged against them for attacking the residence of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf vice-chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

All the 18 nominated accused, including PML-N district president Bilal Butt, secretary general Shaikh Athar and others appeared in the court.

ATC Judge Javed Iqbal Warraich granted them pre-arrest bail till September 4.

FIR of the incident includes sections 146 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) and 7-Anti-Terror-Act.

Daulat Gate police had registered FIR against 18 nominated and 50 unidentified PML-N activists on the complaint of Mr Qureshi's personal secretary Muhammad Iqbal.

The FIR was lodged on the interference of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif after the PTI protested against the refusal of police to lodge the FIR.

The prime accused, Bilal Butt, claimed he was in fact trying to stop the party workers from attacking Mr Qureshi's house.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2014