LAHORE: A sessions court on Saturday declared Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Shafqat Mahmood innocent in the cases of vandalism and attack on police during his party’s Azadi March on Islamabad on May 25.

The other day, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) had quashed terrorism charges against the PTI leaders in the cases of vandalism and attacking policemen.

The PTI leaders, including Hammad Azhar, Yasmin Rashid, Aslam Iqbal, Jamshed Iqbal Cheema, Musarat Cheema, Shafqat Mahmood, Mehmoodur Rasheed, Andleeb Abbas, Murad Raas, Yasir Gilani and Zubair Niazi, appeared before the court.

The court also transferred the cases to the sessions court for further hearing. Subsequently, 20 PTI leaders withdrew their bail petitions from the ATC.

On Saturday, the sessions court was hearing bail petition of Shafqat Mahmood in the vandalism and attacking policemen case.

The investigating officer submitted that Mr Mahmood was not involved in the case and the investigation proved him innocent.

Mr Mahmood had taken back his bail petition and pleaded before the court that the cases registered against him should be quashed. The cases were registered with Islampura, and Factory Area police stations.

The court issued the order and declared Mr Mahmood innocent and ordered police to quash the cases against him.

The PTI had marched on Islamabad on May 25 for, what it called ‘haqeeqi azadi,’ demanding new general election following the party chief Imran Khan’s ouster as the prime minister through a no-confidence vote in April.

The march was preceded by the authorities invoking Section 144, a measure used to curb gatherings.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2022