The Lahore High Court on Wednesday granted bail to a co-suspect in the gun attack on former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in Wazirabad last year.
A two-member bench of the Lahore High Court, comprising Justice Naeem and Justice Shahram Sarwar Chaudhry, approved the bail of co-accused Tayyab Jehangir Butt as it conducted the hearing on the Wazirabad attack.
Appearing in court on behalf of the petitioner, Advocate Mian Dawood stated that the police had arrested Tayyab Butt on the very next day of the attack on Nov 4, 2022. However, he said, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) headed by former CCPO Ghulam Mahmood Dogar brought the arrest of the suspect on record two months later on Jan 10, 2023.
The lawyer stated that CCPO Dogar had used violence on the instructions of the PTI leadership to obtain forced confessional statements from his client.
He pointed out that the suspect had been charged with collusion in the crime under Section 120-B of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). He said the prosecution accused the suspect of supplying a pistol to the prime suspect, Muhammad Naveed.
Presenting arguments in court, the lawyer said that the prosecution, in their six-month long investigation, could not find a single concrete testimony or evidence against his client.
The lawyer said that despite the passage of six months, the prosecution has been unsuccessful in completing the investigation and filing the final challan. According to the law, no accused can be detained indefinitely, no matter how serious the allegations may be, he said.
During the hearing, the record of the case was presented in court by the prosecution. The government lawyer informed the court that Tayyab Butt was nominated based on the statement of the main accused, Waqas, to which the co-accused’s lawyer stated that there is no direct evidence of Tayyab Butt’s involvement or conspiracy in the incident.
