LAHORE: A two-judge bench of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday showed its displeasure to the prosecution and police officials for rendering poor assistance during hearing of the post-arrest bail petitions of fashion designer Khadija Shah and others in the corps commander’s house attack case.

At the outset of the hearing, Justice Aalia Neelum, who headed the bench, warned the investigating officer (IO) of contempt proceedings if he failed to appear before the court on time again.

CCPO Bilal Siddique Kamyana assured the bench that the IO would be on time at future hearings.

Designer Khadija Shah’s plea seeking details of cases against her disposed of

Asked about the status of challan in the Jinnah House attack case, the CCPO told the bench that challan had been submitted to the trial court. However, SSP Investigation Imran Kishwar said the trial court returned the challan to the prosecution for scrutiny.

“It means the challan has not been submitted yet,” the bench observed.

Special Prosecutor Farhad Ali Shah told the bench that two people were killed and 46 injured during the attack on the Jinnah House, which also serves as the corps commander’s residence.

He said both victims — Abdulah and Abdul Qadir — were shot in the head.

He said as many as 250 suspects had been discharged in the case for want of evidence.

The prosecutor said Khadija Shah had been arrested after her presence on the alleged occurrence was proved through geo-fencing. He said the prosecution witnesses also identified her during the identity parade. He said Ms Shah made five calls from her mobile phone during the incident and posted inciting tweets before and after the May 9 riots.

He said the woman suspect was involved in ransacking the property of the Jinnah House and the police recovered a club from her possession.

Justice Neelum noted that the prosecution had not placed even a single video of inside the property out of a total of 600 videos of the incident.

“Did police obtain video footage from the media?” the judge asked the prosecutor.

The prosecutor said that journalists of the mainstream media were outside the corps commander’s house.

He said some Youtubers, who claimed to be journalists, made videos of the violence inside the premises.

Advocate Sameer Khosa, the counsel for Khadija Shah, said the petitioner was picked up on May 19 along with her husband and father. He said the husband and the father were released following an order issued by the LHC on a habeas corpus petition.

The counsel, however, sought time to present the copy of the order.

A counsel for other petitioners/suspects said his clients were not even present at the alleged occurrence. He said the mobile phone record of the petitioners denied the claim of the police. The bench would resume the hearing on Wednesday (today).

Separately, a two-judge bench, headed by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi of the LHC, disposed of a petition by Ms Shah, seeking details of cases against her.

A law officer filed a report on behalf of the Punjab police, saying only two cases had been registered against the petitioner relating to the May 9 riots.

The bench disposed of the petition and warned the police against harassing the petitioner in any undisclosed case

Meanwhile, an anti-terrorism court on Tuesday issued show-cause notices to all members of a JIT for not presenting record of the Jinnah House attack case during the hearing of post-arrest bail petitions of 15 suspects.

Judge Arshad Javed was hearing the bail petitions of Sanam Javed and others.

The judge admonished the investigating officer for not producing the record and issued show-cause notices to all members of the JIT. He also summoned the JIT members in person on Wednesday.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2023