LAHORE: A sessions court on Saturday reserved its verdict on a post-arrest bail petition by one of the suspects in a case of two foreign women’s alleged abduction and rape.

Earlier, Defence C produced the record of the case after several opportunities given by the court.

Advocate Salman Shahid argued on behalf of the suspect/petitioner that his client had been falsely implicated in the case due to defective, selective and unfair investigation.

He said no specific allegation or role had been attributed to the petitioner in the FIR.

The counsel argued that the police had not conducted an identification parade of the suspect. He claimed that the DNA sample of his client also proved negative.

He contended that victim women had nominated four suspects in the FIR, but the police arrested eight persons.

The counsel pointed out that the petitioner was a member of the janitorial staff at the property allegedly used for the alleged occurrence narrated in the FIR.

He said no incriminating article, weapon, money or any other case property had been recovered from the possession of the petitioner.

Even no evidence of the petitioner’s presence at the alleged occurrence had been presented by the police, he added.

The lawyer asked the court to release the petitioner on bail as there was no need to keep him behind bars.

After hearing the arguments, Additional District and Sessions Judge Rafaqat Ali Gondal said the verdict on the petition would be announced on Oct 14 after going through the police record.

In this case, the police had initially arrested four suspects, including one related to a senior political figure. Later, it arrested more suspects, including the petitioner.

ARMS ORDINANCE: The district courts across Punjab have decided more than 86pc of cases pending until 2023 under the Pakistan Arms Ordinance 1965 during the past six months.

According to a statement issued by the LHC media cell on Saturday, the district judiciary decided 2,934 of the 3,397 cases pending until 2023 under the ordinance.

All such cases have been decided in 17 districts of Punjab, while 463 cases remain pending in other districts.

The statement said a large number of the remaining cases were linked to pending murder trials.

Chief Justice Aalia Neelum directed the relevant courts to conclude the murder trials at the earliest to facilitate the disposal of the remaining cases under the ordinance.

The statement attributed the progress to judicial reforms, an improved case management system, effective monitoring and measures aimed at ensuring transparency.

It said the digitisation of the judicial system was helping in reduction of the backlog of cases and strengthening the confidence of lawyers and litigants in the justice system.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2026