LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Thursday dismissed the post-arrest bail petitions of 146 PTI workers including women, and released 34 others in the Jinnah House attack case.

Judge Ijaz Ahmad Buttar announced the verdict on the bail petitions of 180 suspects.

Former MNA Alia Hamza Malik, fashion designer Khadija Shah, a grand-daughter of former army chief Asif Nawaz Janjua, and Tayyaba Raja are among the women whose bail petitions were rejected on merit.

The petition of Sanam Javed was dismissed for non-prosecution.

The judge allowed the bail petitions of women including Ayesha Masood, Faiza Azmat, Farhat Farooq, Sania Sajid, Farah Nisar, Maria Khan, Khalida Hameed, Shumaila Sattar, Sajida Bibi, Khadija Naeem, Maha Masood, Maryam Mazari and Huma Saeed.

Bail requests of Khadija Shah, Alia Hamza and Tayyaba Raja rejected

The male suspects including Rizwan Khan, Kamran, Syed Zain, Azhar Rasheed, Faisal Masood, Saqib Tariq, Dr Humair Asif and Hassan Adnan were also granted bail by the court.

Withdrawn post-arrest bail

Separately, Judge Buttar also dismissed as withdrawn post-arrest bail petition of PTI-Punjab president Dr Yasmin Rashid in the Askari Tower, Liberty attack case.

A counsel for the woman leader sought a court’s permission to withdraw the petition, which was allowed and the judge dismissed the petition as withdrawn.

The judge also dismissed bail petitions of 13 other suspects including fashion designer Khadija Shah in the tower attack case registered by Gulberg police.

The judge released 23 suspects in a case of torching police vehicles in Gulberg area during the May 9 riots by the PTI workers. The judge directed them to furnish bail bonds of Rs100,000.

Non-bailable warrants

An anti-terrorism court on Thursday issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of five leaders of PTI in the Askari Tower attack case.

The warrants were issued after the IO stated that police tried its best to arrest the suspects but they continued to avoid the law.

The leaders include former provincial minister Mian Aslam Iqbal, Jamshed Iqbal Cheema and his wife Musarrat Jamshed Cheema, Advocate Hassaan Khan Niazi and Ghulam Abbas.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2023