ATC issues written order in Imran Khan’s acquittal case

ISLAMABAD: The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) of Islamabad Tuesday issued a written order regarding acquittal of Prime Minister Imran Khan in a case pertaining to attack on the buildings of Parliament and state TV during the protests of 2014. ATC judge Raja Jawad Abbas, in his nine-page judgment, stated that the FIR was registered on the second day of the incident despite the area police station was just 2 km away.

There were no appropriate reasons for delay in registration of the case. The decision stated that there were no allegations of murder, terrorism and others crimes against Imran Khan instead as head of a political party he was accused of just instigating the protesters to attack the government property.

Imran Khan was accused of provoking his party workers through his speeches but the transcript of his speech was made part of case record, it stated. The supplementary challan submitted by the policehad stated that PTI chief Imran Khan had forbidden the protesters from damaging the government property during the sit-in.

The court order stated that there was no evidence against Imran Khan regarding provoking his workers to damage the public property. It further said that according to the prosecution, the leadership of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had ordered their 21,000 protesters to march toward the Prime Minister House and the Parliament.

However, the FIR was registered against only 131 people due to some reasons. The nature of the cases against the people was common. The decision said that if Section 144 was imposed on that day then the case should have been registered against all 21,000 people.

Why a big crowd was allowed to enter Islamabad and Red Zone for sit-in after imposition of Section 144. The public prosecutor had also told the court that it was just a politically-fabricated case as no evidence was collected which could support the stance of prosecution. The public prosecutor further told the court that it would be wastage of court time to continue the trial against Imran Khan.