Islamabad court orders arrest of CM Gandapur in arms, liquor case

 

A local court in Islamabad on Wednesday issued fresh arrest warrants for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur in a case related to the alleged recovery of liquor and weapons.

The warrants were issued by Judicial Magistrate Mubashir Hassan after no representative appeared in court on behalf of Gandapur during today's hearing.

The court directed authorities to arrest CM Gandapur and produce him before it on September 17. The case was registered against the chief minister at Islamabad's Bhara Kahu police station.

The development comes a day after an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore acquitted PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi while sentencing Yasmin Rashid, Ejaz Chaudhry, and others to 10 years in prison over a May 9 riots case related to violence at Rahat Bakery Chowk.

ATC Judge Manzar Ali Gul issued the verdict in the case of burning of a Supreme Court judge's car at Rahat Bakery Chowk on May 9, 2023. The hearing was held in Kot Lakhpat Jail, Lahore.

Similarly, PTI leaders Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed and Umar Sarfraz Cheema were also awarded 10 years’ imprisonment each.

The court also awarded a five-year sentence to PTI leader Khadija Shah in the same case. However, Rubina Jameel and Afshan Tariq were acquitted.

Last month, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) de-notified many PTI lawmakers, including the opposition leaders in the Senate and National Assembly — Senator Shibli Faraz and Omar Ayub Khan — following their convictions in the May 9 cases.