PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Friday directed the provincial government to produce records of around 48 petitions it filed for the cancellation of bail granted by anti-terrorism courts to scores of people, including former PTI lawmakers, in cases related to May 9-10 violent protests against the arrest of their leader and former prime minister Imran Khan.

Justice Syed Arshad Ali of a single-member bench fixed Sept 4 for next hearing into the case declaring all those cases will be heard separately.

The cases mostly pertained to May 9-10 violent protests in Peshawar and adjoining districts as well as the ransacking of the Radio Pakistan building and Election Commission of Pakistan’s regional office here.

The government has claimed in petitions that though enough evidence was available against the suspects, the ATCs accepted their bail pleas.

Govt requests court to cancel bail granted to suspects by ATCs

Some petitions are related to FIRs registered in Peshawar’s police stations, including East Cantonment and Khan Raziq Shaheed police stations.

The ATCs have granted bail to over 300 suspects in those cases.

Additional advocates general Mohammad Nisar and Mohammad Farooq Afridi appeared for the government and contended that the subordinate courts had erred in granting bail to hundreds of suspects against whom evidence of violence was available.

They said that orders of the ATCs were “apparently” illegal, erroneous and factually incorrect and thus, resulting in miscarriage of justice.

About the attack on the regional office of the Election Commission of Pakistan, they said that more than 100 people were involved in that incident for which the police registered an FIR on May 10 under the Pakistan Penal Code and Anti-Terrorism Act.

They said that 10 people were named in the FIR for leading the protest and ransacking the office.

The bench wondered how it could be decided as to who led mobsters as mobs were often without any leader.

The AAGs replied that the mob in question was led by an absconding former MPA, Asif Khan, who through social media issued directions to the PTI workers.

The bench asked him how an absconder led the mob.

A panel of lawyers, including Shah Faisal Uthmankhel, Ali Zaman and others, appeared for the suspects and contended that they were falsely implicated in the instant cases.

Ali Zaman pointed out that 25 FIRs were registered in Peshawar over May 9-10 violent protests.

He said some people were charged in multiple cases and that their trial had already begun.

The lawyer questioned how it was possible that a single man participated simultaneously in protests in the jurisdiction of five different police stations.

He claimed that two juvenile suspects were named in an FIR at 2pm, another at 6pm and third at 9pm.

The bench decided to seek records in all cases and declared it would hear all cases separately on their “own merit.”

In one petition, the government claimed that after smashing the main gate of the Radio Pakistan premises in Peshawar, the protesters torched the building and vehicles parked there spreading fear, terror and insecurity in society.

It added that the police “tactfully” arrested 20 suspects from the mob, while the rest of 200-300 miscreants fled.

The prosecution said the police arrested several others over violence afterwards.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2023