The Lahore High Court (LHC) Thursday observed that the Anti Terrorism Act does not allow reconciliation among the parties and matter should be decided on merit. The court adjourned the proceedings to December 13 in an appeal of the prosecution challenging acquittal of PML-N MNA Abid Raza in a murder case of six persons including two police constables.
The counsel of the accused said that it is a matter of life and death of four people and therefore, there should be no hurry in deciding the matter and sought more time to prepare his case. Previously, the LHC had sought arguments from the Punjab prosecution department on a point whether a suspect charged under anti-terrorism law could be acquitted following reconciliation with a complainant.
On Thursday, the counsel of the accused argued that their clients were awarded death sentence but both the parties had reached reconciliation among themselves. Abid Raza was elected to the assembly from NA-207, Gujranwala, in 2013 elections on the ticket of PML-N. An anti-terrorism court of Gujranwala had awarded Raza and six others death sentence in 2001 for killing two police constables and others.