ISLAMABAD :(Web Desk)- An anti-terrorism court on Tuesday acquitted President Arif Alvi in the Parliament attack case along with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
Senior party leadership, including Planning Minister Asad Umar, Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood and Provincial Minister Shaukat Yousufzai have also been acquitted in the case.
ATC judge Mohammad Ali Warraich announced the ruling today.
The court also acquitted now disgruntled members of the PTI, Jahangir Khan Tareen and Aleem Khan, in the 2014 case, amidst no objection from the prosecution.
The president and several others were booked in the PTV and parliament attack case in 2014 during PTI’s sit-in against the then PML-N government.
Earlier, President Alvi had refused to avail immunity in the Parliament attack case and opted to appear before an ATC.
The president had 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 had said.
The case and PM Imran Khan’s acquittal
On September 1, 2014, hundreds of men and protesters from the PTI and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) camps had allegedly ransacked the office of the PTV and Parliament House premises and brutally beaten up a senior police official, less than 24 hours into his first day on the job as SSP Operations.
During the sit-ins in 2014 in the federal capital, Prime Minister Imran Khan, PAT chief Tahirul Qadri and several others were booked over their alleged involvement in the attack.
SSP Asmatullah Junejo attack case was filed after the 2014 sit-ins in which ATC had acquitted the PTI chairperson, Imran Khan, in 2018. During the previous proceedings, the prime minister’s counsel Abdullah Political leaders and over a hundred workers and supporters were also booked in the cases. The workers who were arrested were later released on bail.
