SHO ordered to present Marriyum before ATC on Dec 9

LAHORE: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Lahore on Monday directed the police to arrest Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Marriyum Aurangzeb in a hate speech case and produce her in court on December 9.

The orders were issued by ATC Judge Abher Gul Khan who directed the station house officer (SHO) to execute the arrest warrants of Aurangzeb. The non-bailable arrest warrant was issued against the former information minister for not appearing before the court.

A terrorism case was registered against Aurangzeb, Mian Javed Latif, state-run Pakistan Television’s Managing Director Sohail Khan and others for allegedly trying to incite hatred by using the religion card against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan. Latif and Aurangzeb were accused of making controversial remarks at the behest of their party leadership to fan religious hatred against the former prime minister.

In the previous hearing, the ATC judge cancelled the non-bailable arrest warrant against Latif after he appeared before the court.

Advocate Farhad Ali Shah representing Javed Latif and Marriyum Aurangzeb appeared before the court. During the hearing, Judge Khan inquired about the whereabouts of the PML-N leaders and was informed that Latif had appeared while Aurangzeb had not. Consequently, the judge issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for the former information minister and directed all suspects named in the case to appear before the court on December 9.