ISLAMABAD: A judicial magistrate on Monday declared two PTI leaders — former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Ali Amin Gandapur and ex-National Assembly opposition leader Omar Ayub — absconders in two case pertaining to the party’s 2022 ‘Haqeeqi Azadi March’.

The march is one of several protests that the party has carried out following the ouster of PTI founder Imran Khan as the prime minister through a no-confidence vote in 2022.

Judicial Magistrate Mubashir Hassan Chishti heard the two cases related to the protest, registered at Islamabad’s Bara Kahu police station, declaring Ayub and Gandapur absconders and issuing their perpetual arrest warrants over their persistent absence from hearings.

Judge Chishti observed that the two had failed to appear before the court despite the issuance of summons multiple times. They also did not furnish any plausible justification for their absence, the judge noted.

They were summoned several times, but they continued to evade the proceedings, the judge remarked.

Making these observations, he declared both PTI leaders absconders and directed the issuance of permanent arrest warrants for them so that they are presented before the court.

Over Gandapur and Ayub’s persistent absence from the proceedings, the court had formalised their status as proclaimed offenders at a previous hearing.

Meanwhile, the court had acquitted several others accused in the case, including PTI leaders Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Zartaj Gul, in the two cases on the basis of insufficient evidence to establish their involvement in the allegations levelled by the police.

According to the prosecution, the two cases were registered in connection with alleged violations of law and order during the ‘Haqeeqi Azadi March’, with police claiming that the accused had incited people to commit unlawful activities and obstructed officials from performing their duties. The defence, however, had consistently maintained that the cases were politically motivated.