PESHAWAR: As many as 74 PTI activists have been acquitted in a case regarding violence on May 10, 2023, which led to the deaths of two people.

Additional sessions judge Faraz Ahmad on Monday accepted an application filed by the defence for acquittal of the accused persons under section 265-K of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which empowers the court to acquit an accused at any stage of the proceedings where there is no probability of conviction.

The judge ruled that the entire case of the prosecution, insofar as the present accused persons were concerned, rests upon bald and unsubstantiated allegations, unsupported by any direct, circumstantial, or legally admissible evidence connecting them with the commission of the offence.

He observed the court was satisfied that there exists “no probability of the accused persons being convicted of the offence, and continuation of the trial would be nothing but a futile exercise” resulting only in unnecessary harassment and abuse of the process of the court.

Case was based on ‘unsubstantiated allegations’, judge rules

The case registered at Faqirabad police station of Peshawar was one of the multiple cases registered across the country from May 9 to 11, 2023, against PTI leaders and workers over violence protests against the arrest of ex-premier Imran Khan.

SHO Waris Khan was complainant in the FIR registered on May 10 on charges of intentional murder, hatching criminal conspiracy and rioting. He claimed he received information that 250 to 300 people along with PTI’s local leadership resorted to indiscriminate firing resulting in firearm injuries to two persons, namely Javed and Bilal, who later died in hospital.

During the investigation, the police nominated and charged the 74 suspects, including PTI’s Peshawar chapter president and Senate by-election candidate, Irfan Saleem.

The PTI leadership denied the charges, alleging both the deceased persons were party workers killed by police.

During the proceedings, the legal heirs of the deceased Bilal, including his parents and wife, testified they had neither charged the suspects nor had the desire to proceed against them. They stated they had no objection to their acquittal in the case.

Defence counsel Mohammad Adeel Butt claimed the suspects had falsely been implicated in the case. He said none of the accused facing trial were charged in the original FIR and there was no eyewitness against them. He requested the court to acquit them as there was no probability of their conviction even if the trial was concluded.

“It is manifest from the record that the accused persons were nominated in the FIR nor apprehended at the spot, and their implication surfaced only during the course of investigation. No private witness, injured person or eyewitness has come forward to nominate or identify them,” the court ruled.

It pointed out no test identification parade was conducted that could assume greater significance when the FIR was initially lodged against unidentified persons. Also, “no incriminating article has been recovered from the possession of the accused persons or at their pointation, nor is there any admission or confession attributable to them despite their alleged custody”, the judgement observed.

At the Jan 7 hearing, the court had noted the prosecution and the complainant SHO were showing disinterest in the case.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2026

Correction: A previous version of this story stated that the judge accepted the application filed by the defence for acquittal of the accused persons under section 247-K of the Code of Criminal Procedure. It is, in fact, section 265-K. The error is regretted.