'Azadi March': Court grants interim bail to 13 PTI leaders

LAHORE: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Lahore Friday granted interim bail to 13 senior leaders of the PTI in a case relating to violence and riots during the party’s recent “Azadi March” on Islamabad.

The ATC granted pre-arrest bail to former federal minister for education Shafqat Mehmood, Yasmin Rashid, Hammad Azhar, Murad Raas, Zubair Niazi, Mehmoodur Rasheed, Aijaz Chaudhry, Aslam Iqbal and others against surety bonds of Rs1 lakh each.

Talking to journalists, after getting interim bail, PTI’s Hammad Azhar said that the “imported government” was lodging cases against those who came out to stage a peaceful protest which is their constitutional right.

“Rana Sanaullah and Maryam Nawaz want to transform the country into a police fascist state,” he added.

Earlier in the day, the ATC issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of the senior leaders of the PTI in a case relating to the party’s long march towards Islamabad.

The warrants were issued over Shahdra police's request.

The non-bailable arrest warrants against the PTI leaders have been issued “on the grounds that they are intentionally concealing themselves in order to avoid their arrest and their arrest is necessary for the completion of the investigation,” read the judge’s order.

Multiple PTI leaders including Chairman Imran Khan, Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi, General-Secretary Asad Umar, Imran Ismail and others were booked for "rioting" during the party's May 25 long march. However, the Imran Khan, Asad Umar and some other leaders acquired bails in these cases.