TOBA TEK SINGH: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Parliamentary Leader in National Assembly Zartaj Gul says her party is not looking towards US president-elect Donald Trump for release of PTI founder Imran Khan from jail; instead, it will continue its struggle within the country.

She calls it shameful that the PML-N and PPP leaders, who had tweeted against Trump, are now deleting their tweets after his victory.

She was speaking to the media outside the anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Faisalabad after appearing in a May 9 case on Thursday.

Ms Gul said the ATCs were constituted to try terrorists but they were being used against the innocent PTI workers.

Terms deleting of tweets by PML-N, PPP leaders shameful after Trump’s win

She said Imran Khan would be released soon by the courts as there was no solid charge against him except the cases of so-called watch selling despite the fact that the BMW car and other costly Toshakhana gifts had been stolen by those who were now in government.

ATC special judge Javed Iqbal Sheikh adjourned until Nov 13 and Nov 20 the hearing of two cases registered against more than 250 leaders and activists of the PTI who all appeared before the court. Cases against them were registered under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) on May 9, 2023, on charge of involvement in riots in Faisalabad after PTI founder Imran Khan was arrested.

Prominent among those who were present in the court on Thursday besides Ms Gul included PTI women wing central president Kanwal Shouzab, former federal information minister Fawwad Chaudhry, Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s son MNA Zain Qureshi, MNA Rai Hassan Nawaz, MPA Rai Murtaza Iqbal, MNA Bilal Ijaz and PTI women wing additional secretary Farkhanda Kokab.

PTI legal team head Malik Khalid Shafiq told the media that one-time exemption for Opposition Leader in National Assembly Omar Ayub Khan and Leader of Opposition in Senate Shibli Faraz was accepted by the court as both of them had to appear in other courts at Islamabad.

Kanwal Shouzab said Imran Khan was mentally tortured in the jail but he had already announced that come what may he would never leave the motherland.

gangsters killed: Two members of Gulfam Shah Gang were killed in an encounter with Jaranwala Saddar and City police in the Chak Khaddian Warraichan area of Faisalabad. The gang was allegedly involved in kidnap and murder of two girls besides extortion and robbery cases.

A police spokesperson said they had raided a village to arrest members of the gang on a tip-off received by Jaranwala Saddar and City police. He alleged that the gang members opened indiscriminate fire on policemen, which was retaliated. Faisalabad Saddar police and policemen from other nearby police stations also arrived. When the crossfire stopped, police found two men injured by the firing of their own accomplices. They were being shifted to Allied Hospital when they succumbed to their injuries. The deceased were identified as Umar Farooq and Raza Hussain Munna.

The spokesperson said the outlaws were wanted by police in dozens of cases of robberies, extortion and murder of two young cousin girls abducted by them from Farooqabad, Sheikhupura. The accused had shot the girls dead and threw their bodies by the roadside near Adda Chak 72-GB in Jaranwala tehsil on Sept 21.

Sources said some months ago, a Faisalabad police team, led by a DSP, had conducted a raid in Vehari to arrest the ringleader of the gang, Gulfam Shah, and his accomplices but in vain while the DSP was injured in crossfire.

The Gulfam Shah Gang members suspected that both the murdered girls had informed police about its presence in Vehari. They abducted the girls and brutally murdered them.

The Gulfam Shah Gang was a challenge for Faisalabad police as its ringleader and his accomplices had repeatedly challenged the police through video messages on social media and its members used to change their locations.

Earlier, police had launched search operations on various occasions at Chak Khaddian Warraichan with hundreds of policemen but had failed to nab them.

INJURED: A man was critically injured as the dilapidated roof of his house fell on him at Chak 269-RB, Dijkot, Faisalabad.

Rescue 1122 staffers removed the debris, rescued him and shifted him to DHQ hospital. He was identified as Shahbaz Ameer (49).

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2024