–PM’s counsel Babar Awan claims ‘there’s no probability of conviction even if court takes up case for hearing’
ISLAMABAD: President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday filed applications seeking acquittal in the Parliament and Pakistan Television (PTV) attack cases during the 2014 sit-in.
Alvi’s lawyer Muhammad Ali Bukhari and Khan’s counsel Babar Awan filed the acquittal applications under Section 265-K. The court directed the prosecution to present its arguments in the case on October 22.
Referring to the charges as groundless, Awan claimed there was no probability of conviction even if the case was to be heard by the court.
On September 27, an ATC granted protection to the president under Article 248 (2) of the Constitution and the case was “adjourned sine die” – with no appointed date for resumption.
In the order, Judge Kausar Abbas Zaidi had stated that Alvi is entitled to protection as he was elected and has taken oath as the president of Pakistan.
At the time the president’s counsel said he was not aware of any such order because he had not sought any such relief from the ATC.
Earlier, the ATC had confirmed interim pre-arrest bails to Alvi, Asad Umar, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Shafqat Mehmood and Raja Khurram Nawaz in the cases.
On August 31, 2014, in an attempt to topple the PML-N government, PTI and PAT workers had marched on the Parliament and the PM House while clashing with police along the way.
On September 1, 2014, hundreds of men, allegedly protesters from the PTI and PAT camps, had ransacked the PTV office, parliament premises. Imran, PAT chief Tahirul Qadri and several others were booked over their alleged involvement in the attack.
