May 9 GHQ attack: Omar, Shibli amongst 47 POs handed 10-year jail term
RAWALPINDI: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Saturday sentenced 47 proclaimed offenders (POs), including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders Omar Ayub Khan, Shibli Faraz, Hammad Azhar and others, to 10 years in prison each in the May 9 General Headquarters (GHQ) attack case.
ATC Judge Amjad Ali Shah, while announcing the reserved judgment, sentenced Murad Saeed, Kanwal Shauzab, Sheikh Rashid Shafique, Shahbaz Gill, Zulfi Bukhari, Muhammad Ahmad Chattha, Rai Hassan Nawaz, Rai Muhammad Murtaza, Shaukat Ali Bhatti, Usman Saeed Basra and Ejaz Khan Jazi, among others, to 10 years imprisonment each, along with a fine of Rs500,000 per person. In default of payment, they will undergo simple imprisonment for one year.
Other accused include Asim Rehman, Syed Ijaz Khan Jazi, Malik Abid Hussain, Zahid Abbas Chaudhary, Faisal Mukhtar, Muzammal Maqsood Bhatti, Khawar Shahzad, Ali Husnain, Muhammad Zulfiqar, Malik Wakeel, Sikandar Fiaz, Atif Qureshi, Umer Murtaza, Haseeb Qureshi, Mohsin Raja, Raja Majeed, Allah Muhammad, Sohail, Muhammad Umer, Muhammad Naeem, Arshad Hussain, Muhammad Asim, Azeem Ullah Khan, Chaudhary Asif Ali, Chaudhary Bilal Ijaz, Shakeel Ahmad Khan Niazi, Muhammad Javed, Muhammad Ashraf Khan, Muhammad Ansar Iqbal, Shaheer Sikandar, Hamza Latif, Haider Mehmood and Ismail.
According to the ruling, 118 accused, including the PTI founder and Shah Mahmood Qureshi, were indicted in the case. So far, statements of 44 prosecution witnesses have been recorded.
The court noted that 18 of the 118 accused remained continuously absent during the trial, while 29 never appeared in court after the case was registered.
Under Section 21-L of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), a separate trial was conducted for 47 proclaimed offenders. The prosecution filed a request on January 6 this year seeking action against the absconding suspects, after which the court ordered an inquiry.
Following the inquiry, the court declared the 47 suspects as deliberate absconders. A public notice was published in newspapers on January 8, giving them seven days to surrender, but none appeared before the court.
The court subsequently appointed a state counsel for the proclaimed offenders and framed charges against them. The prosecution recorded statements of 19 witnesses, while the state counsel cross-examined them.
After completion of the trial, the court sentenced the 47 proclaimed offenders to 10 years imprisonment each, imposed a fine of Rs500,000, and ordered the confiscation of their properties.
The case regarding the May 9 attack on GHQ was registered at RA Bazaar Police Station, Rawalpindi.
According to the judgment, all the accused in the case intentionally evaded the process of justice through deliberate abscondence, thereby obstructing the course of justice.
The court observed that all legal procedural requirements of fairness, recognised in international case law from the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Court of Justice, and now codified in Section 19(10) of the ATA, 1997, were fulfilled. These included effective notice to the accused through publication of proclamations in leading national dailies and representation through senior counsel.
The prosecution, the judgment stated, proved the charge under Section 21-L of the ATA, 1997 beyond a shadow of reasonable doubt against all the accused persons.
In its judgment, the court observed that the first set of accused comprised 18 national-level politicians who had full knowledge of the trial, as they continued attending proceedings conducted at Rawalpindi’s Central Jail and in the courtroom.
“Most of the prosecution witnesses were recorded in their physical presence and in the presence of their counsels of choice, who even raised objections to certain portions of the statements,” the judgment noted.
It added that the witnesses also inspected the case property in court, including clubs, petrol bombs, stones and pieces of a broken army sculpture recovered from the scene.
The proceedings were regularly reported in national media with global reach, as the case involved a former prime minister as a co-accused. Therefore, the court observed, Gill and Bukhari had full knowledge of the trial while abroad and even commented on it on social media.
“When the last few prosecution witnesses remained to be recorded, they wilfully absented themselves to bring the trial to a grinding halt,” the judgment said.
Regarding the remaining 29 accused, who never joined the trial, the court noted that they absented themselves even before the trial began.
“Long unexplained absconsion of the accused after involvement in a criminal case always gives an inference of guilt unless proved otherwise,” the court observed. The judgment also referred extensively to international jurisprudence on trials in absentia, citing cases from the US Supreme Court, the UK’s Criminal Justice Act 2003, and the European Court of Human Rights. It noted that Pakistani law under Section 19(10) of the ATA provides stronger safeguards, including the right to counsel and the right to retrial upon subsequent appearance.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026