Islamabad: A district and assembly court on Monday acquitted Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and other party leaders in two long-standing vandalism cases.
Other freed party leaders include Zartaj Gul, Ali Nawaz Awan, Faisal Javed, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Qasim Suri, Raja Khurram Nawaz, Shireen Mazari, Saifullah Niazi, Asad Umar and Miami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmad.
A case has been registered against Khan and other politicians at Kohsar and Karachi corporation police stations for violating Section 144.
The court’s decision came after hearing a plea filed by the PTI founder and other politicians.
The verdict acquitting Khan, Qureshi, Rashid, Awan, Suri, Nawaz was delivered by Judge Shahzad Khan for the case registered at Kohsar Police Station.
Meanwhile, Judicial Magistrate Mureed Abbas passed the verdict acquitting Khan, Qureshi, Mazari, Niazi, Umar, Gul, Awan, Javed and Nawaz in the case filed by Police Corporation Karachi.
The court had earlier reserved its verdict on the long march vandalism case.
Speaking to reporters in the federal capital, Khan’s lawyer Naim Panjotha said the case against the PTI founder was motivated by political vendetta.
“There is no evidence of vandalism against the PTI founder for a long time,” he said, adding that the Islamabad administration has not yet issued a notification to implement Section 144 in the capital.
According to the commission, various cases similar to the PTI founder have been registered and he has been acquitted in several cases related to the long march.
He also said that other political leaders were acquitted in vandalism cases.
In this regard, the District and Sessions Court on May 15 acquitted Khan in two cases related to the vandalism on May 9.
Khan and several other PTI leaders, who are behind bars in Adiala jail, are facing multiple charges in violence-related cases after their arrest on May 9.
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on May 16 upheld the PTI founder’s affidavit against the ₹190 million National Crime Agency (NCA) settlement.
