ISLAMABAD: The legal team of PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Friday wrote a letter to Islamabad police to remove terrorism charges against him in the First Information Report (FIR) registered against him and others over a protest outside the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) after the latter disqualified him in the Toshakhana case.

The Sangjani police has registered the FIR. The letter stated: “The alleged crime was neither terrorism nor the applicant and others were found to be members of any prescribed organisation.”

It said Mr Khan and others did not commit an act which would fall within the ambit of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).

According to the letter, Section 7 of the ATA has been invoked in this matter in contradiction with the law laid down by the Supreme Court.

The anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Feb 15 rejected the pre-arrest bail of Mr Khan in the case over his failure to attend the proceedings.

The PTI chief was supposed to personally appear before the court on every hearing for being on pre-arrest interim bail. However, his counsel repeatedly sought exemption from personal appearance owing to his injuries sustained in the Wazirabad firing incident.

According to the order of the ATC, Mr Khan filed the application for pre-arrest bail on Oct 24 last year, but he did not appear on consecutive hearings on Oct 31 and after being injured on Nov 10, 21, 28, Dec 09, 19, Jan 10, 2023, 31, Feb 2 and on Feb 15.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2023