Haleem, Ali Zaidi acquitted in rioting case

A court on Monday acquitted Sindh Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) president Haleem Adil Sheikh and former federal minister Ali Haider Zaidi in a case pertaining to rioting on the City Courts premises.

The former lawmakers, along with PTI workers, were booked on rioting and criminal intimidation charges after they allegedly resorted to hooliganism and obstructed police officials from performing their duty when former prime minister Imran Khan’s nephew Hassan Niazi was brought to the City Courts by the Jamshed Quarters police in March last year.

Sheikh and Zaidi moved an application before the judicial magistrate-XII (South) under Section 249-A of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) seeking their acquittal in the case.

Section 249-A empowers a judicial magistrate to acquit an accused at any stage of trial if, after hearing the prosecutor and the defence side, he considers that the charge is groundless or that there is no probability of the accused being convicted of any offence.

The magistrate pronounced his order on the application after hearing arguments from both sides. “Both accused persons namely Haleem Adil Shaikh and Ali Haider Zaidi are hereby acquitted from the charge by exercising powers under Section 249-A of Criminal Procedure Code, 1898,” he ruled.

Haleem Adil and Ali Haider Zaidi turned up in the court on bail. An FIR was lodged under the sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapon), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the City Courts police station on the complaint of a police official.

The investigation officer of the case had produced Niazi before a District East judicial magistrate in a case lodged against him at the Jamshed Quarters police station. He was later discharged by the court.