LAHORE: PTI MPAs Hafiz Farhat Abbas and Imtiaz Sheikh on Thursday escaped arrest after the Lahore High Court revoked their pre-arrest bail in two cases of May 9 riots.

Both leaders appeared before a two-judge bench comprising Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi and Justice Muhammad Tariq Nadeem on expiry of their interim pre-arrest bail.

The prosecution presented record of the cases before the bench with a request to withdraw the concession of bail from the petitioners.

A prosecutor said the petitioners had not joined the police investigation of the cases against them.

In the light of the prosecution report, the bench recalled the bail of the MPAs, who effortlessly fled the court after the announcement of the order.

Previously, the bench had granted bail to both MPAs after they expressed concerns that they might be arrested in old cases based on supplementary statements.

EJAZ CHAUDHRY: The same bench also dismissed post-arrest bail of incarcerated PTI Senator Ejaz Chaudhry in the case of burning police vehicles near the Jinnah House.

Earlier a lawyer for the senator argued that the relevant footage was not made part of the record, and even after 18 months, the prosecution had not presented any evidence against him.

He argued that the petitioner was not directly involved in any case but nominated supplementary statements of other suspects. He said multiple FIRs were registered for the same incident.

A prosecutor opposed the bail petition, saying ample evidence was available on the record to prove charges against the petitioner.

After hearing both sides, the bench dismissed the bail petition.

An anti-terrorism court had previously rejected the bail plea of Senator Chaudhry.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2024