KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Thursday acquitted 12 Pakistan Tehreek-i- Insaf (PTI) leaders, including party’s Karachi president Raja Azhar and secretary general Arsalan Khalid, in a case pertaining to obstructing policemen from discharging their duties on Nov 8, 2024.

The PTI leaders had filed applications under Section 249-A of the CrPC through their counsel Khalid Mehmood before the judicial magistrate (Malir), seeking acquittal in this case.

After hearing the arguments, the court allowed the applications and acquitted the 12 PTI leaders, including Azhar and Khalid, and cancelled their bonds while discharging their sureties.

During the arguments, advocate Mehmood contended that his clients were falsely implicated in this case.

The counsel submitted before the court that on Nov 8, 2024, his client, along with fellow party members and supporters, had peacefully gathered at a ground opposite to Al-Asif Square before departing for a political rally in Swabi.

He alleged that DSP (Malir) Chaudhry Sohail Faiz, SHO Wazir Ali Samo and others, accompanied by armed plainclothes officers, arrived at the scene and manhandled Mr Azhar and his fellow party members.

He claimed that they forcibly detained the PTI leaders and supporters and took them to the police station where the police had registered an FIR against them in Sohrab Goth police station.

Advocate Mehmood submitted that the prosecution had failed to produce any substantial evidence against the PTI leaders, including CCTV footage, to prove that they were involved in violence or obstructed the police from performing their duties on Nov 8.

He maintained that the police did not produce any witnesses and evidence in the case regarding the alleged violence, nor did PTI supporters engaged in any illegal activities.

A case was registered at Sohrab Goth police station under Sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2025