ISLAMABAD: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Wednesday suspended the arrest warrants of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Information Minister Shaukat Yousafzai in Pakistan Television (PTV), parliament attack case.
The non-bailable arrest warrants of the KP minister were issued a day earlier for his non-appearance before the court in a case pertaining to attack PTV and Parliament buildings during the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) sit-in back in 2014.
The provincial minister, along with his counsel Ali Bukhari, appeared before the court and urged for suspension of arrest warrants. The court accepted the appeal and suspended its previous orders and directed him to appear before the court in the next date of hearing to be held on March 28.
On Tuesday, ATC judge Syed Kausar Abbasi Zaidi issued the arrest warrants for Yousafzai as he had repeatedly failed to attend court proceedings. The court ordered that the provincial minister be arrested and presented before the court. Furthermore, the court issued non-bailable arrest warrants against 26 workers, allegedly belonging to the PTI.
Police had invoked relevant sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act against Imran Khan and his fellow PTI leaders Arif Alvi, Asad Umar, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Shafqat Mahmood and Raja Khurram Nawaz for inciting violence during the 2014 sit-in at D-Chowk in Islamabad.
According to the prosecution, three people had been killed, 26 others injured, and 60 arrested during the violence. The prosecution had submitted 65 photos, sticks, cutters, etc, to the court to establish its case.
