KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court on Thursday reissued non-bailable arrest warrants for Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) chief Manzoor Pashteen and National Assembly member Mohsin Dawar in a four-year-old sedition case.

The two were booked for allegedly committing sedition, rioting, holding an unlawful assembly and delivering speeches defaming the state in Shah Latif Town, Karachi, in 2018.

At the onset of the hearing, the Anti-Terrorism Court-X judge, who conducted the trial in judicial complex inside the central prison, inquired the investigating officer about the execution of non-bailable arrest warrant issued on the last date.

Investigating officer Ghu­lam Mujtaba Bajwa stated that the warrants could not be executed on the accused persons. He also requested for more time to execute the warrants on Mr Pashteen and MNA Dawar and produce them before the court and filed an application seeking adjournment.

Granting the request, the judge reissued the non-bailable warrants and directed the IO to arrest the two leaders and produce them before the court on Nov 19.

The PTM chief and the lawmaker have been booked in a case lodged under the Sections 124-A (sedition), 148 (rioting with deadly arms), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 153-A (promoting enmity bet­ween different groups), 500 (defamation) and 505 (sta­tements conducing to pub­lic mischief) of the Pak­istan Penal Code read with the Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 at the Shah Latif Town police station.

In December last year, an anti-terrorism court had indicted MNA Dawar and other PTM leaders in a separate case related to alleged sedition and the use of provocative language against state institutions during a rally in Sohrab Goth on Dec 6, 2020.

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2022