Actress Atiqa Odho acquitted in liquor case after 9 years

Published August 21, 2020
Rawalpindi trial court says there was no evidence against Atiqa Odho. — Quratulain Khalid/File
Rawalpindi trial court says there was no evidence against Atiqa Odho. — Quratulain Khalid/File

A Rawalpindi civil court on Friday acquitted actress Atiqa Odho in a nine-year-old case in which she was accused of carrying two liquor bottles in her luggage at an airport.

The court, in its verdict, said that there was no evidence against Odho. The verdict was announced by Rawalpindi's judicial magistrate Yasir Chaudhry.

The case was remanded to the trial court in 2018 by the Supreme Court. The actress in 2017 had appealed the top court to intervene, saying that all trial courts had rejected her application for acquittal on the grounds that the trial was not over and the matter would be decided after closing of the evidence of the accused in the defence.

In 2011, Odho was detained by the Airport Security Force at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport for allegedly carrying two liquor bottles in her luggage. She was released shortly after the intervention of some ‘influential figures’ in the matter.

Then chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry had taken suo motu notice of her release and ordered authorities to lodge a first information report of the incident.

Odho's lawyer Barrister Ali Zafar had argued that she had been implicated in a false case as a result of the suo motu action, that too was based on news reports.

He further said that the case against his client was false and frivolous and after the prosecution's conclusion of its evidence, it was obvious that no case had been made against her.

Opinion

Editorial

Pakistan’s moment
Updated 20 Jun, 2026

Pakistan’s moment

Pakistan’s diplomats are second to none, and if these states seek to engage this country constructively, a new modus vivendi for the subcontinent can be reached.
Menacing water plans
20 Jun, 2026

Menacing water plans

IN April last year, India suspended the decades-old Indus Waters Treaty, which contains no provision allowing it to...
World Refugee Day
20 Jun, 2026

World Refugee Day

WORLD Refugee Day, observed today around the globe, marks 75 years since the adoption of the 1951 convention ...
Digital deal
19 Jun, 2026

Digital deal

THINGS have moved rapidly where the Iran-US memorandum of understanding is concerned. While the physical document ...
Failing the public
19 Jun, 2026

Failing the public

WHETHER it is Sindh’s struggle to secure clean drinking water or Balochistan’s difficulty in improving the...
Crushed lives
19 Jun, 2026

Crushed lives

COURTS and commissions have often been up in arms over the health and ecological hazards associated with...