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Court dismisses bail petition of PA deputy speaker’s brother, cousin

By: Akhtar Amin

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday dismissed bail petition of the brother and cousin of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly’s deputy speaker who were charged and arrested in a rape case.

A single bench headed of Justice Malik Manzoor Hussain dismissed the bail petition of the accused Safdar Qureshi, brother of Deputy Speaker Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi, who is leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in Kohat district, and his cousin Asmatullah Qureshi after hearing the arguments of the legal counsels of both the parties and also the law officer.

The accused had filed bail petition in the high court after it was rejected by the sub-ordinate courts in the case.According to the first information report (FIR) registered on May 7, 2014 Safdar Qureshi and Asmatullah Qureshi entered the house of the victim, Farahnaz, at around 9:30am on May 6 and allegedly raped her.

The police charged both the accused persons under sections 376 (rape), 452 (trespass with the intent to hurt, assault or wrongful restraint) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The petitioner’s lawyer Ishtiaq Ibrahim submitted before the bench that his clients were falsely charged in the case as the medical report of the victim woman was found negative. He argued that there was nothing on record against the accused persons and thus they are liable to be released on bail.

Talking to the media at the PHC premises, Farahnaz, whohundreds of police officials, including high-ups of police department. The mobile record of Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, then Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, and other police high-ups had been collected. The JIT will soon complete its investigation. The report added that accused police officials were arrested following the media reports.

The petition was filed by Minhaj-ul-Quran Secretariat director administration Muhammad Jawad Hamid. The complainant contended in his petition that he along with another Pakistan Awami Tehreek worker Muhammad Tayyeb Zia was present at Minhaj-ul-Quran Secretariat at midnight of 16 and 17 June. He said that meanwhile he heard hue and cry outside the secretariat. When he came outside he came to know that a heavy contingent of police headed by DIG Operations Rana Abdul Jabbar was busy removing barricades installed outside the secretariat for security purposes. Moreover, on the occasion, the SP Headquarters, the SP Security, the SHOs Kahna and Nishtar Town were also present. He informed the police officials that the barricades were installed on the directions of the court and the police department, he said. To this, he was told that all this was happening on the behest of Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, he added.

After a while, a large number of people gathered on the spot and police responded in aerial firing and tear gas shelling, he said. When bulldozers, he added, escorted by police tried to move towards the residential block of the secretariat a large number of PAT female workers made a human wall and tried to stop bulldozers.

Seeing the wall of PAT workers, the DIG operations warned that if women did not clear the area before he counted till 3, he would order direct firing and started counting. The complainant said that as counting of Jabbar ended police officials started direct firing and killed two female workers, Tanzila Ahmed and Shazia Murtaza. He said police kept on firing which caused loss of more lives, including Safdar Hussain, Muhammad Umer, Muhammad Iqbal, Asim Hussain, Ghulam Rasool and others. He alleged that police not only disgraced ‘Gosha-e-Darood’ located at the secretariat but also looted valuables from there. Adding fuel to fire, Gullu Butt, a blue-eyed of the rulers, damaged a lot of vehicles of visitors and staff parked outside the secretariat. The petitioner said that 14 innocent persons were killed and over 100 injured in the firing incident.

He termed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Rana Sanaullah, Chaudhry Nisar, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Khawaja Asif, Parvez Rasheed and other government officials responsible for the bloody incident at Minhaj-ul-Quran secretariat. He pleaded that the police was given an application for registration of a case against the responsible persons but the case was not registered against them. He implored the court to issue directions for registration of a case against them.

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