LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Wednesday dismissed the bail petitions of former provincial minister Dr Yasmin Rashid in two cases of May 9 riots following her conviction.

ATC-I Judge Manzer Ali Gill announced the reserved verdict, ruling that Dr Rashid’s bail pleas had become infructuous as the petitioner had been convicted in both cases.

The judge dismissed her bail pleas in the cases pertaining to Shadman police station attack and torching of police vehicles near Jinnah House in Lahore.

In a recent decision, an ATC concluded the jail trials in both cases and awarded ten-year imprisonment to Dr Rashid in each case.

Separately, ATC-III Judge Arshad Javed adjourned the trial proceedings of five cases related to May 9 riots due to the unavailability of the defence lawyers.

The judge directed the defence to conduct the cross-examination of the prosecution witnesses on Aug 18.

PLEA DISPOSED OF: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday disposed of a petition of PTI MPA Imtiaz Mahmood Sheikh challenging the suspension of his Punjab Assembly membership.

During the proceedings, Advocate Azhar Siddique appeared on behalf of the petitioner and sought permission to withdraw the petition.

The counsel stated that a representation had been filed before the Punjab Assembly speaker against the suspension order.

Justice Khalid Ishaq accepted the request and disposed of the petition as withdrawn.

In his petition, Sheikh said that during a session, he pointed out lack of quorum when four laws were being passed. As a consequence, he said, the speaker, invoking Assembly Rules 4 and 5, suspended his membership for 15 sittings.

The petitioner asked the court to set aside the speaker’s suspension order for being unlawful and restore his membership.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2025