President Alvi appears ATC in Islamabad
ISLAMABAD, Mar 04 (SABAH): President Dr. Arif Alvi made his first appearance before an anti-terrorism court in Islamabad on Friday in the 2014 Pakistan Television (PTV) and Parliament House attack case.
President Dr. Arif Alvi, who is nominated in the case, arrived at the ATC along with his counsel Advisor to PM on Parliamentary Affairs Dr. Zaheeruddin Babar Awan and filed an application to decline availing presidential immunity that he enjoys under Article 248 of the Constitution.
The hearing was conducted by ATC judge Muhammad Ali Warraich. The president informed the court that he had the prerogative to avail immunity under the laws of Pakistan, “however, I choose to withdraw it as I believe there should no difference between anyone.”
“I have tried to read Islamic history. There is no space for a pardon; I am bound by the Constitution of Pakistan. The Holy Quran is a bigger law than the Constitution,” Alvi said.
The president said that the Constitution allows him to avail immunity, but he would not take it up.”All the caliphs appeared in court with great dignity.”
The president said he got to know in 2016 that he had been charged in the case pertaining to the ransacking of the Parliament and state-run PTV.
President Alvi said he had taken bail from the same court a few years back, as he urged the judiciary to wrap up the cases at the earliest.
“I request the entire judiciary to close at the earliest as once a case is filed, the next generation carries it on [due to delays]. My father filed a case in 1977 and it is going on till date,” he said.
The court had reserved the verdict in the case last month, which will be announced on March 9.
Later, speaking to media outside the court, the president said he was bound to follow the country’s laws but insisted that he did not want to avail immunity in the case. “I appeared before the court today as a common citizen and not as the president of Pakistan,” he said.
On September 1, 2014, hundreds of men and protesters from the PTI and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) camps had allegedly ransacked the office of the PTV and Parliament House premises and brutally beaten up a senior police official, less than 24 hours into his first day on the job as SSP Operations.
During the sit-ins in 2014 in the federal capital, Prime Minister Imran Khan, PAT chief Tahirul Qadri and several others were booked over their alleged involvement in the attack.
SSP Asmatullah Junejo attack case was filed after the 2014 sit-ins in which ATC had acquitted the PTI chairperson, Imran Khan, in 2018. During the previous proceedings, the prime minister’s counsel Abdullah Political leaders and over a hundred workers and supporters were also booked in the cases. The workers who were arrested were later released on bail.
Police invoked the Anti-Terrorism Act against PTI chief Imran Khan and leaders including Arif Alvi, Asad Umar, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Shafqat Mehmood and Raja Khurram Nawaz for inciting violence during the 2014 sit-in.
As per the prosecution, three people were killed and 26 others were injured while 60 individuals were arrested. The prosecution had submitted 65 photos, sticks, cutters and other objects to the court as evidence to establish its case.