PTI Sartaj Gul and Ejaz Chaudhry leaders presented appeals at the Superior Court of Lahore (LHC) on Saturday against their convictions for the Anti -Terrorist Courts (ATC) in cases of disturbances on May 9.
On May 9, 2023, the supporters of PTI, the arrest of the founder of protest of the Imran Khan party, organized violent protests throughout the country, after which thousands were arrested.
On July 31 of this year, an ATC in Faisalabad sentenced PTI leaders, including Gul, 10 years in prison for their participation in riots. Pakistan’s Electoral Commission then disqualified her and other PTI legislators after her convictions. Chaudhry was sentenced in another case of May 9 for an ATC in Lahore on July 22 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Gul presented an appeal against his conviction and sentence at the LHC today. A LHC division bank will listen to the case on Monday.
The appeal was presented through Gul’s lawyers, lawyer Ali Zafar and Muhammad Hussain, and begged the court to leave aside his conviction and absorb it in the case.
He said that Gul was not nominated in the case or “found physically participating in the occurrence.” He added that the Prosecutor’s Office did not provide justification to include through the complementary declaration, which affirmed in doubt the authenticity of the occurrence that had not been considered in the trial stage.
He declared that the ATC passed the “contested trial … in a hurried way and Slipshod”, based on three witnesses who had admitted in the interrogation that they had not nominated her, but that she was convicted of her statements with considerable punishment.
“The Prosecutor’s Office has not submitted a case for such punishment,” the petition argued, adding that the witnesses themselves had been badly declared many times and “cheated” the court of first instance with additions and deletions in their statements that made their testimonies not reliable, but finally exonerated the appellant.
“The other ATC court in Sargodha has incredulous to the same witnesses of prosecution … but this is ignored when making (the) contested decision,” he said.
He also declared that there had been no evidence of conspiracy in the case file, challenging his punishment under section 120-b of the Pakistan Criminal Code.
The petition stated that “the Prosecutor’s Office could not establish the participation of the appellant in the occurrence and instigation/abet beyond the shadow of doubt, then there were no reasons to grant punishments to the innocent appellant.”
He declared that the sentence was against “facts and laws and resulted in (a) an erroneous reading of justice” and that, when approved hurriedly, they were not considered material parts of evidence “despite the facts that the Prosecutor’s Office did not achieve inacolable evidence and there was (every) possibility of false implications.”
In particular, he cited the lack of material evidence to establish the intention of firing, instigating and conspiring to facilitate the other accused parts. According to the request, the investigation was “partial” and “defective”, but this was ignored by the court. In addition, he criticized that more weight was given to the testimony statements than to the trial evidence, without “not” properly appreciating “the prosecution’s evidence.
He added that 77 coacked had been acquitted by the same evidence, while Gul was convicted without valid reasoning.
The petition requested that the sentence be on the side since the case had not been shown “beyond the shadow of a doubt” due to the lack of impeccable evidence, and added that the evidence contained contradictions. He called the judgment of the “arbitrary, capricious, indiscreet, not spoken and without legal authority court based on any evidence.”
The petition said Gul was looking for permission from the Court to advance more reasons at the time of the discussion.
Meanwhile, Chaudhry presented two requests in the LHC through the lawyer Mian Ali Ashfaq.
Chaudhry begged the court to suspend his sentence and condemn, along with ordering his bail release.
In addition, he asked the court in the second petition to put aside his conviction and acquit him in the case in the “interest of justice.”
ATC reserve verdicts in two cases of May 9 that involve Chaudhry, Rashid, Qureshi, others
Separately, Lahore ATC reserved its verdicts in two cases of fires related to the disturbances of May 9, in which the high -level leaders of PTI Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Dr. Yasmin Rashid, Chaudhry and Omar Chema are accused, with the judge scheduled to announce the decisions on August 11.
According to Defensores Rana Mudassar and Rana Marof, who represented PTI leaders during the audience, the trials in the cases of flames out of Rahat Bakery and Arson near Shadman Nazar completed and the judge of ATC Manzar Ali Gul reserved his verdict.
They said the verdicts would be broadcast on Monday.
They said that a total of 25 defendants were appointed in the case of Rahat Bakery, while seven defendants were declared fleeting. They added that the trial of 12 defendants was completed in the fire of the Shadman Nazar police station and five defendants were in custody in this case, while a defendant had died.
The lawyers said that Qureshi, Dr. Rashid, Chaudhry, Chema, Mian Mahmoodur Rashid and other defendants were present in the courtroom.
