Daily Times

Lahore police on Friday added Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997 to the FIR against PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz, her husband Captain (r) Safdar and party workers in a case relating to a clash outside the National Accountability Bureau’s Lahore office.

Consequently, a sessions court in Lahore dismissed the plea for interim bail filed by 16 PML-N workers and directed all parties to approach the relevant forum. The investigating officer told the court that terrorism provisions have been added to the case, hence the case was no longer under the jurisdiction of the sessions court. To this, Safdar’s counsel said it was unfortunate that terrorism charges were being added to a political case. “Police added terrorism charges to the case contrary to the truth,” he said.

In a written order, the court observed that the petitioner claimed the case was ‘malafide’ as the investigating officer had added terror clauses without collecting evidence. The court also noted that the public prosecutor had submitted that after the insertion of Section 7, the court had no jurisdiction to grant bail. “It is also argued that CCTV footage and other material collected by the IO suggest the accused, after due deliberation, attacked the NAB office. After addition of the offence, which are triable exclusively by special court constituted under the Anti-Terrorism Act, this court cannot confirm the pre-arrest bail granted to the petitioner,” the court order said.

The Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, deals with punishment for terrorism. The PML-N leaders and workers were booked for the alleged incitement of riots outside the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) office last month.

Safdar appeared before an anti-terrorism court and obtained interim bail till September 11. The court also sought a record of the cases against the PML-N leader from the police. In his bail application, Safdar said police had registered a ‘false and baseless’ case against him, adding that his nomination in the case was politically motivated.

Later in the day, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif condemned the incorporation of a terrorism clause in the police report against the party workers. “Shows how coward and insecure Niazi government is,” he said, adding, “PTI is brazenly promoting the politics of vendetta and revenge.”

Last month, PML-N supporters and police engaged in violent clashes outside the NAB office, where Maryam Nawaz had been summoned to respond in a case of alleged illegal transfer of government land. Whilst police and the Punjab government claimed that it was a deliberate attempt on the PML-N leader’s part to create anarchy, Maryam had accused NAB and police of attacking the party’s workers and pelting stones at her bulletproof car. A case had been registered against Maryam, Safdar and others in the Chohang police station after NAB officials filed a case. Rana Sanaullah, Pervez Rashid, Zubair Mahmood, Javed Latif, Daniel Aziz and Pervez Malik had also been named in the first information report (FIR). Police had also registered a case against 300 unidentified persons, including 188 PML-N workers, which includes violence against police personnel.

The FIR was registered under sections 147, 149, 290, 291, 440, 109, 353 and 86 of the Pakistan Penal Code.