LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Friday acquitted former MPA Nazir Chohan and seven others in a 2022 case of attacking a police team.

Judge Abher Gul Khan acquitted the accused persons after the prosecution failed to establish its case.

The judge observed that the court found no evidence to support the allegations of attacking the police party against the accused persons.

Other acquitted accused include Saad Nazir, Abid Ali, Rafaqat Ali, Hafiz Rizwan, Qasim, Faisal Maqbool and Qamar Abbas.The defence lawyer contended that a false case was registered against Chohan and others to target them on political grounds. He said the accusation of attacking the police was baseless.

Chuhng police had registered a case against them in 2022.

BAIL: An anti-terrorism court on Friday adjourned the bail petition of PTI-Punjab President Dr Yasmin Rashid in a May 9 case of torching police vehicles in Gulberg area.

Judge Arshad Javed deferred the hearing till Dec 4 as the prosecution could not complete its arguments due to unavailability of special prosecutor Mansoor Bokhari.

transgender fest: The Lahore High Court on Friday adjourned a petition challenging a transgender festival being held in the city this month.

A citizen, Ammar Hanif, filed the ‘public interest’ petition through Advocate Nadeem Sarwar pleading that LGBTQ-based festival “Scrapfest” was being held in Lahore on Dec 12 and for that purpose auditions are on card this weekend.

The lawyer stated that Scrapfest was a Canada-origin LGBTQ event hosted by Canadian-Pakistani musician Urvah Khan. He said the event was openly promoting the LGBTQ agenda, which disturbed the nation as it was against the Constitution and injunction of Islam. He said it was alarming to see the rapid rising trend of LGBTQ in Pakistan. He said the people hosting the objectionable event were not human rights activists or feminists.

The counsel argued that this sort of festival violated the Constitution of Pakistan by encouraging immoral behaviour and homosexuality, which was not permissible in Islam in any form.

He pointed out that previously the Sindh High Court had also suspended the licence of such a festival.

He asked the court to order the government and the police to take a strict action against the organisers of the festival and cancel the permission to hold the event if already granted.

Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan adjourned the hearing till Dec 4.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2023