Parliament attack case: President Arif Alvi declines to claim immunity

ISLAMABAD: President Arif Alvi Friday declined to claim immunity in the Parliament House and PTV attack case and appeared before an anti-terrorism court (ATC).

The president, PM and several other PTI leaders were booked in the case during the party's 2014 sit-in against the then PML-N government.

President Alvi appeared along with his counsel, Babar Awan, at the ATC, where judge Muhammad Ali Warraich was hearing the case.

During the hearing, the president filed an appeal stating that he would not be availing his immunity and said that Islam does not allow pardons.

"I have tried to read Islamic history. There is no space for a pardon; I am bound by the Constitution of Pakistan. The Holy Quran is a bigger law than the Constitution," Alvi said.

The president said that the Constitution allows him to avail immunity, but he would not take it up."All the caliphs appeared in court with great dignity."

The president said he got to know in 2016 that he had been charged in the case pertaining to the ransacking of the Parliament and state-run broadcaster.

President Alvi said he had taken bail from the same court a few years back, as he urged the judiciary to wrap up the cases at the earliest.

"I request the entire judiciary to close at the earliest as once a case is filed, the next generation carries it on [due to delays]. My father filed a case in 1977 and it is going on till date," he said.

Speaking to journalists after the court hearing, the president said he got to know that he was accused of supplying weapons to the attackers in 2014.

"I am bound by the laws of Pakistan but I do not want to be pardoned in the case [...] I have appeared before the court not as the president, but as a commoner," he added.