ISLAMABAD: A local court has acquitted Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders, including party chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Omar Ayub Khan, citing insufficient evidence and vague allegations in the two cases filed against them.
Judicial Magistrate Shahzad Khan issued a detailed judgment regarding the acquittal of PTI leaders, Aamir Mughal, Ali Bukhari, Shoaib Shaheen, Malik Rafique, and others from two cases registered under sections, 159, 188, 186,353 under PPC and another case under Sections 506II,290,341, 188,159,353,186 under PPC at Karachi Company police station, stating that the prosecution failed to present “cogent, strong, and hard evidence” necessary for conviction. The court dismissed the charges, calling the continuation of the trial a “sheer waste of court[’s] time.”
The judgment highlighted that it is evident that the case against the petitioners and other accused individuals is fraught with serious legal and factual deficiencies. The allegations are vague and lack specificity, the prosecution has failed to establish individual roles or a common objective, and no incriminating evidence has been recovered from the accused persons/petitioners, it says.
It says these shortcomings collectively weaken the prosecution’s case and raise significant doubts about the validity of the charges. “Without further evidence or clarification, the case appears to be built on shaky foundations, and the accused cannot be held liable for the alleged offenses based on the current record”, it says, adding that as such, the charges against the petitioners and other accused individuals may well be dismissed for lack of merit.
It says that the record reflects that general allegations are levelled in the first information report (FIR) and no specific role has been attributed to the present accused persons/petitioners. The record further shows that accused persons/petitioners, along with approximately 150 people, made a procession in which they made slogans against the state and also violated the lawful order of the authority; resultantly a case was registered, it says.
The judgment says a critical issue is that the allegations are entirely general, targeting a large group of around 150 individuals without attributing any specific role, act, or overt criminal intent to the accused petitioners.
This violates a fundamental principle of criminal law that accusations must be clear, specific, and individually attributable to sustain a prosecution, it says.
It says that shockingly, despite the alleged involvement of 150 people, only two witnesses were cited in the challan, and there is no CCTV footage, NADRA facial recognition data, or other forensic evidence to connect the petitioners to the offence. Additionally, the absence of modern investigative techniques (CCTV, biometric verification) violates the right to a fair trial under Article 10A of the Constitution, it says.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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