LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Monday allowed police physical remand of Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) MPA Hafiz Farhat Abbas in a case of violence during a rally against alleged rigging in the general election while discharged over a dozen activists of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

The Old Anarkali Police Station produced the MPA and the PTI activists before the court.

The investigating officer told the court that the suspects had attacked the police personnel and ransacked the public property at the GPO Chowk. He asked the court to allow physical remand of the suspects for further investigation.

Judge Arshad Javed granted two-day physical remand of the MPA and discharged all other suspects in the case. He directed the police to present Abbas again in the court on March 13.

DHA ACCIDENT: The father of an underage driver involved in a deadly DHA road accident filed a petition before the ATC challenging the inclusion of offence of terrorism in the first information report (FIR).

Last week, the prosecution filed an interim challan (investigation report) against the teenage driver and four others involved in the accident that claimed the lives of six members of a family.

The suspects, including underage driver Afnan Shafqat, his father Shafqat Ali, and friends Ali Abdullah, Muhammad Saad and Muhammad Ibrahim, have been declared guilty of multiple offences in the challan.

Shafqat Ali, who is on bail, filed the petition pleading that the police had unlawfully inserted Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 in the FIR. He asked the court to order deletion of the terrorism offence from the case and refer the trial to a court of ordinary jurisdiction.

The police investigation report said the teenaged suspect and his friends first harassed the women passengers before hitting their car. The father, a property dealer, had been accused of illegally letting his underage son drive.

The report said a request had been sent to the authority concerned to conduct a bone ossification test for determining the age of the suspect but a positive response was still awaited. It said the age of the suspect, as per the birth certificate, was 17 years and 27 days on the day of occurrence.

Rafaqat Ali, the complainant of the FIR, lost his wife Rukhsana Bibi (45), son Husnain (25), daughter-in-law Ayesha (23), son-in-law Sajjad (30), four-month-old grandson Huzaifa, and granddaughter Anaya (4) when a speedy car driven by the suspect hit their vehicle.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2024